Knitters see faith intertwine with craft
Across Chicago area,
congregations' shawls wrap people in prayer
By
Deborah Hallman
Special to the Tribune
Published January 17, 2007
Audrey Palmer
was undergoing treatment for cancer last spring when she received a prayer
shawl, a gift from a Hoffman Estates church.
"It just felt so good to have so many people [at St. Hubert Catholic Church]
thinking about you--people I didn't know who were praying for me," said Palmer,
68, of Hoffman Estates.
Many Chicago-area
congregations have embraced a movement that seeks to add a spiritual component
to the repetitive act of knitting--a twist from more traditional church knitting
circles.
The yarn, needles and hooks used to fashion the shawls were among the prayer
tools at a recent gathering of the Prayer Shawl Ministry of St. James Catholic
Church in Arlington Heights.
At first, the members prayed over the material. Then hands and fingers awhirl,
19 women knitted and crocheted shawls for people experiencing illness or
adversity, or celebrating an event, such as marriage or a baby's birth.
The group finished the day by forming a circle to dedicate the two dozen shawls
brought in for blessing--and to pray once again--for the recipients.
"It's meditative for me, and it calms my soul to be able to do it," said Jeanne
McDermott, 53, an Arlington Heights resident who knits with the St. James group.
The spiritual and the tangible make contemplative knitting appealing, said Lia
Douglas, 46, who co-founded the St. James group about a year ago.
"It's an activity that you do for yourself to quiet your mind and center
yourself," she said. "The product of that activity is something that connects
you with someone else who's in need."
Not to be confused with Jewish prayer shawls, or tallits, traditionally worn in
synagogues, the shawls produced by knitting ministries are made as gifts that
enfold people, said Victoria Galo, who co-founded the Prayer Shawl Ministry in
1998 with Janet Bristow after they graduated from the Women's Leadership
Institute at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where they participated in a
program of applied feminist spirituality.
"We've pretty much heard from every continent," Galo said of the ministry's
growth. And though the practice has been embraced primarily by Christian women's
groups, Bristow said people of other faiths, such as Judaism and Zen Buddhism,
have contacted them through www.shawlministry.com about starting groups.
The shawls, which are given away, can be as different as the groups making them.
Jo Albert, who heads the shawl ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Wheaton,
uses a soft yarn for her shawls and washes them with lavender-vanilla-scented
fabric softener. Other ministries personalize them with beads, favorite colors
or ornaments on the fringe.
Rev. Chris Pokorny, lay pastor and head of the knitting ministry at Edgebrook
Evangelical Covenant Church on Chicago's Far Northwest Side, said her program
provides numerous items for the needy and often distributes them with the help
of sister congregations.
The church group of about 15 women--calling themselves Crafty Angels--works with
other women across the country to knit not only shawls, but also hats, scarves,
mittens, afghans, blankets and baby items for homeless and poor people in the
Chicago area. The ministry provides about 3,000 items a year, she said.
"The women pray while they're making [the knit items], not in any particular
way, but as the spirit leads them," she said.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune