The Awakening Table

I built this table for the Awakening worship group at First United Methodist Church, Waynesville, NC. Emerging out of the praise movement in worship, the group embraced a design with upswept walnut legs, laminated with maple. The walnut legs, laminated with maple, and the drop-leaf supports curve upward to evoke the spirit of hands uplifted in praise. The double drop leaf enables them to move between worship in a circle and traditional audience mode.

I placed their logo at the center, depicting the surrounding mountains and the sun nesting in a spiral of creativity. Dogwood blossom inlays of holly fill the walnut mandorlas, while a descending dove, made of holly and purpleheart, and inlays of grapes and wheat appear on either drop leaf.

The table is round, reminding us that, though we are born into many worldly inequalities, our baptism gives us a new birth as citizens who are called in equality around the table where Christ’s spirit presides. In our own day the roundtable has become a symbol of negotiation and reconciliation that can create peace in a world of conflict. The table was dedicated in January of 2006.

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