Challengenewsline - Empty Hanger is full of potential

Quote of the Day
“This world is God's workshop for making men in.” Henry Ward Beecher

Empty Hanger is full of potential

Eve gazes up at a seductive red and green apple, her limpid brown eyes full of innocence. She reaches up... anna delaney 1.jpg

and the rest is history. Today, Anna Delaney is acting the role of Eve, clad in a barely-there gauze outfit bedecked with ivy and laurel leaves. The outfit is one of five designed by students at the London College of Fashion. And they’ll probably be in a secondary school near you this autumn. The five outfits are designed to show the personalities of members of Jesus’ family tree: Eve, Jacob, Rahab, Joseph and Jesus himself. From next term, teenagers at Britain’s schools will have the chance to re-design Eve’s outfit and to come up with a costume that would best represent themselves and how they fit into the family tree. The scheme, fittingly called Empty Hanger, is a collaboration between the London College of Fashion and Bible Society. It’s already been tried out at Bishop’s College secondary school in Gloucester. “The children responded really well”’ says the Revd Joanna Jepson, chaplain to the London College of Fashion, who helped the students design the five outfits.

“They wanted to try on the costumes. They kept saying ‘Why have you come here?’ We were bringing Christ’s message of chosenness. God doesn’t overlook the broken and the poor, those who are struggling.

“I hope that as Empty Hanger goes around the country, children will enjoy it and that it fires their imagination and fires their creativity.

“The stories convey profound struggles of heroes and anti-heroes which will connect with them. They will realise that God can use them and be writing a story with their lives. That’s the message.”

The new schools’ project will be officially launched in Telford in October. After that, any school can choose to incorporate Empty Hanger into its teaching schedule. And there are lots of ways to do this. Schools can opt to buy a video with lesson plans and details of the fashion designs.

They can choose to get students to design their own outfit to fill an empty hanger. And design technology classes can opt to design a clothes rack that symbolises the whole community, or school.

And there’s also an exciting option to invite Joanna Jepson – or a local representative – to visit the school with the costumes for an interactive event. This will include seeing the gauze outfit designed for Eve, which students can then re-design themselves.

So why is this project happening in Britain’s schools? “Most people wouldn’t read the Bible or even consider it worth reading and our first task is to say, you might be surprised what’s in here,” explains Bible Society’s Luke Walton.

“The stories in the Bible are like the soap opera for all eternity. They tell us about ourselves and we can learn about how to live life today through them.”

And he’s keen to explain why Bible Society is involved in encouraging Britain’s teenagers to design an outfit next term. “We are about translating the Bible into different cultures’ languages, and we need a translation that resonates for our generation just as much as any culture in the world.

“We have a mission to tell this book in a language in which people will happily receive it and want to receive it.”

So, from this September, it’s hoped that school children up and down the country will be finding out more about ancient biblical stories through fashion design, technology and also in their RE lessons.

“I want young people to have read the Bible and to know what’s in it,” says Luke Walton, “to know the wisdom it contains for their lives. I want them to be able to make their own decisions about it for themselves.”

By Hazel Southam

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]