Religion: In the Garden

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"In the name of God," cried the Rev. James Murchison Duncan last week from his pulpit in Washington's Episcopal Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes, "I forbid you attend the flower show at the Armory!"

What offended Pastor Duncan about the flower show was a life-sized tableau depicting Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. Every 45 minutes, the azalea-banked exhibit, fresh from a two-year run on Atlantic City's Steel Pier, lit up and went into a 15-minute "performance" controlled by an impressive set of electronic equipment behind the scenes. Three minutes and ten seconds after the deep, resonant voice on the sound track began the story of Gethsemane came the cue: "He turned to his disciples and they were sleeping"; at this point the head of the papier-mache figure of Christ slowly turned. "Where were the multitudes and sick he had healed?" intoned the narrator, and Christ's head began to rise. "And an angel appeared," said the voice. Suddenly a spotlight flashed on to catch a daub of silicone paint on one of the figure's lower eyelids, to give the illusion of a glistening tear. The show reached its smash climax with the sudden illumination of six papier-mache choirboys singing a hymn.

"Christians should shudder," stormed Pastor Duncan, "at the idea that the agony in the garden of our blessed Lord, one of the most awful events in his Passion, should be thus exploited . . . Where are we going to stop? Next thing will be our Lord on the cross with his last words in stereophonic sound. I have no objection to religious art, but when you begin having dolls . . . good God!"

The outrage of Pastor Duncan made good publicity for the flower show; attendance was up some 20,000 over last year. "Toward the end," said one official, "we had more men of the cloth in there than we had flowers."