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Good Shepherd ministry providing prayer shawls
By Jo Anna Matejka
Since for many, the Christmas season is all about remembering the gifts of Christ, the center of the Christian faith, The Terrell Tribune will spend this week focusing on the gifts that many local Christians are continually giving in the name of Christ.
This week, we will look at groups who are reaching out to those in need by offering help, encouragement, comfort and cheer.
At Good Shepherd Episcopal Church a group of parishioners works to extend the comfort and love of God in a tangible way by prayerfully creating and distributing prayer shawls.
The prayer shawl ministry at Good Shepherd got its start two years ago when church member Jean Dahlgren heard about a similar ministry started by two women, Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo in Hartford, Conn.
Bristow and Galo, began the ministry in 1998 and Dahlgren, an avid creature in textiles, read about them on the Internet.
“The time wasn't right just then, but about six months ago, several different people in the church came to me wanting to learn how to knit and the shawl ministry came into being,” Dahlgren said. “It just worked when the Spirit was there. It's a gift of God.”
Now the group has 15 members, who together, produce one or two shawls every week.
The members of the group find creating the shawls to be a very personal way of reaching out to others.
“These are a wonderful, tangible sign of God's love. They are something you can hold and touch,” Dahlgren said. “Often we do something like give food to a food pantry, which is wonderful, but often becomes impersonal. This is very personal.”
The process of making a shawl begins with prayer and the maker continues praying and meditating while creating the shawl. Each shawl is blessed on the alter during a church service and placed on a stool within the church. As church members prepare to take communion, they lay hands on the shawls and add their blessings and prayers.
“It's an incredibly satisfying thing to do,” knitter Bonnie McGinty said. “I think I came to the idea at some point that we're all made in God's image and God is a creative God. Afterall, he created the whole universe. I think knitting suits that creative urge in me and using that part of me that is like God makes me see more what it means to be created in His image.”
The church rector Robert McBride delivers most of the shawls to their recipients, who have been those suffering from sickness, those in need of comfort and those dealing with various kinds of stress.
“People receive them very thankfully,” McBride said. “One of the first shawls we gave away was for a young man with cancer. He told us that when he was in pain, he would wrap himself in his shawl and pray and then he could go to sleep and feel better. I gave another one to a man and his wife who were having some marital difficulties They are wonderful for anyone who wants to draw close to God and feel a tangible presence of God in their life.”
Dahlgren teaches knitting and crocheting to anyone who would like to participate and invites those who would like to bring a prayer shawl ministry to their own church to attend the next group meeting in the church parish hall at 200 West College at 9:30 a.m., Dec. 31. Those who would like to learn to knit need to bring size 11 knitting needles.
This week, we will look at groups who are reaching out to those in need by offering help, encouragement, comfort and cheer.
At Good Shepherd Episcopal Church a group of parishioners works to extend the comfort and love of God in a tangible way by prayerfully creating and distributing prayer shawls.
The prayer shawl ministry at Good Shepherd got its start two years ago when church member Jean Dahlgren heard about a similar ministry started by two women, Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo in Hartford, Conn.
Bristow and Galo, began the ministry in 1998 and Dahlgren, an avid creature in textiles, read about them on the Internet.
“The time wasn't right just then, but about six months ago, several different people in the church came to me wanting to learn how to knit and the shawl ministry came into being,” Dahlgren said. “It just worked when the Spirit was there. It's a gift of God.”
Now the group has 15 members, who together, produce one or two shawls every week.
The members of the group find creating the shawls to be a very personal way of reaching out to others.
“These are a wonderful, tangible sign of God's love. They are something you can hold and touch,” Dahlgren said. “Often we do something like give food to a food pantry, which is wonderful, but often becomes impersonal. This is very personal.”
The process of making a shawl begins with prayer and the maker continues praying and meditating while creating the shawl. Each shawl is blessed on the alter during a church service and placed on a stool within the church. As church members prepare to take communion, they lay hands on the shawls and add their blessings and prayers.
“It's an incredibly satisfying thing to do,” knitter Bonnie McGinty said. “I think I came to the idea at some point that we're all made in God's image and God is a creative God. Afterall, he created the whole universe. I think knitting suits that creative urge in me and using that part of me that is like God makes me see more what it means to be created in His image.”
The church rector Robert McBride delivers most of the shawls to their recipients, who have been those suffering from sickness, those in need of comfort and those dealing with various kinds of stress.
“People receive them very thankfully,” McBride said. “One of the first shawls we gave away was for a young man with cancer. He told us that when he was in pain, he would wrap himself in his shawl and pray and then he could go to sleep and feel better. I gave another one to a man and his wife who were having some marital difficulties They are wonderful for anyone who wants to draw close to God and feel a tangible presence of God in their life.”
Dahlgren teaches knitting and crocheting to anyone who would like to participate and invites those who would like to bring a prayer shawl ministry to their own church to attend the next group meeting in the church parish hall at 200 West College at 9:30 a.m., Dec. 31. Those who would like to learn to knit need to bring size 11 knitting needles.
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