Knitting ministry results in shawls and prayer

BY PATTI VANNOY/Lincoln Journal Star

When they started gathering to knit shawls this fall, some of the women had just learned the craft. Others hadn't picked up needles for a quarter-century.

"The first one had me just about on my knees," Hazel Anthony said at an early December meeting.

Well, that's sort of the point, someone cheerfully replied.

Nearly everything about First Presbyterian Church's knitting ministry is infused with prayer.

At 1:30 each Thursday afternoon, the Rev. Stephanie Anthony says a poetic prayer and lights a large white candle, one with three wicks to recall the Holy Trinity.

Then the half-dozen women set to work, knitting three stitches, then purling three, until three skeins of soft yarn become a fringed shawl big enough to wrap the shoulders in prayers from wrist to wrist.

Each goes at her own pace. "You do not need to be a great knitter and you don't need to be a fast knitter," said Nancy Janike, who finished two between September and December.

In all, the group has completed about a dozen. After being blessed during a Sunday service, they are given to members of the congregation or to others in need of a little warmth — physically and spiritually.

Anyone can commission one by donating nine skeins — enough yarn for three shawls.

One man who'd requested a shawl for a co-worker's wife came back and tearfully told the group what it meant to her.

"When you get that kind of feedback, it reminds you of the importance," Janike said. Because that may be easy to forget when they're having so much fun.

The prayer shawl ministry is also about the knitters, providing a time for fellowship and sharing with each other.

And supporting one another when a stitch gets dropped.

They also work on their knitting at home — Julie Hastings said she has to undo all the mistakes made during an hour and a half of chit-chatting in the church basement.

At home, with a smaller candle lit to set the mood, the work takes on a more contemplative, prayerful context, Stephanie Anthony said.

The rhythmic hand motion is comparable to the rosary, the associate pastor said, though that's not part of the Presbyterian tradition.

The ministry has already started to spread. One woman, after visiting the First Presbyterian knitters, announced her intention to organize a group at her own church. And several other members of First Presbyterian have told Stephanie Anthony they want to learn the needlecraft.

This month, she's started matching them with mentors from the knitting group.

Reach Patti Vannoy at 473-7254 or jspvannp@journalstar.com.