NEWS FEATURE: A Stitch Over Time Yields New `Creation’ Kneelers

c. 2003 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ In the space of six days, the Book of Genesis says, God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, creatures of the sea, birds of the air, and, of course, humankind. Depicting the divine effort with needle and thread took members of […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ In the space of six days, the Book of Genesis says, God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, creatures of the sea, birds of the air, and, of course, humankind.

Depicting the divine effort with needle and thread took members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church about eight years.


But on Aug. 17, the members could rest: 20 needlepointed pads depicting the biblical account of creation were dedicated. Newly stitched covers for the altar chairs and acolyte benches also were blessed.

Priscilla Peavey, chairman of the church’s needlepoint guild and shepherd of the project, said she couldn’t believe the effort was completed.

Gail Bramer, 63, began designing the creation scenes several years ago.

“I am interested in the flora and fauna around us here,” said Bramer, noting that by using the theme she was also able to use designs by a former St. Luke’s member. “And as I got into it, I thought, `This is so much neglected.’… We neglect that first story in Genesis so much.”

Bramer, whose membership at St. Luke’s spans decades, spent more than a year designing the scenes. Then the canvases were lightly painted to show the needleworkers which pieces of wool to use where.

By using the creation theme, she said, she felt that anyone who walked through the sanctuary’s doors would be able to relate to the illustrations of nature.

“The coast, the water … they’re a little different from the church symbols,” she acknowledged. “Maybe it’s bringing God a little bit closer to us in our environment.”

She also was eager to emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit, she said.

“I felt that the Spirit was important right away,” Bramer said, as she stood near the gray-white dove stitched into one of the cushions.


The kneelers replace plain, crimson cushions the congregation purchased more than 10 years ago. Since then, they’ve been “patched and patched,” said Linda Anderson, a longtime member of St. Luke’s. She stitched two of the new pads.

Peavey, 67, said she first thought of undertaking the project while driving to work several years ago.

“Every Episcopal church that I’ve ever belonged to had needlepoint,” she said. “We had a new church and it was so barren and so full of light, and yet we had no color.”

Peavey made a few phone calls, and the work was under way.

“It’s not a commercial thing,” the Rev. W. Murray Bullock, interim rector of St. Luke’s said of the new pads. “You’ve got to feel a certain appreciation for the people who provided this for your comfort and for your edification.”

For the men and women who spent years stitching, each cushion holds a story beyond the ones conveyed by the kinds of stitches used, which range from the Oblong Backcross to the Gobelin Split, the Vertical Mosaic to the Diagonal Tent.

Sally Boom, a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Daphne, Ala., and a consultant on the stitching project, said a benefit of the work is that “it throws people together that perhaps might not have the same interest outside of this.


“It helps you form deep relationships,” she said.”It’s been a real joy for me.”

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Anderson, 60, said her work was dedicated, in part, to the memory of John Timothy Adams. Adams, who painted one of the cushions, died in a car accident during the yearslong stitching project.

“While he was not a member of St. Luke’s, he heard about the project through me,” Anderson said. “It was with a heavy heart that I covered up the last of his painting.”

Seeing the guild’s completed work in the chapel shortly before the dedication, however, gave her a “heartwarming feeling,” she said.

“I was glad that I could do something that will be around longer than I will,” she said. “Having been a communicant of St. Luke’s for more than 30 years, it’s just part of my love for my church.

“St. Luke’s is sort of plain,” she said. “These kneelers, I think, add a new dimension to the church that we didn’t have before.”

DEA END CAMPBELL

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