Dear friends,
This past month I had the privilege of working to bring the Sacred Ally Quilt Tour to Framingham. With colleagues at Edwards Church and Edwards House, we planned for three days of viewing these amazing and powerful pieces of fabric art. Looking back, what I most take from this unique experience is the sense of being part of something…an event, a journey, a statement…much larger than myself.
It was an odd feeling planning for and caring for these eleven quilts. The murder of George Floyd that inspired their creation was a story, not my own. Three years ago, we watched in horror as it happened. It was so disturbing, so tragic and unjust. Many spoke out, stood up, marched. My family gathered with neighbors on the common in Lunenburg. We joined with others that day and took a knee for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, in honor and memory, frustration and rage. A small gesture, a single step on the journey to greater awareness.
A group of United Church of Christ congregations in New Hampshire found a different way to express their grief and outrage. They created these quilts. Each quilt has expressed its own story and message. Those who cut, sewed and quilted them put so much of themselves into the work, the creation of a more enduring statement.
Being entrusted with the quilts was a profound experience. We carefully unwrapped each one from its canvas bag and white tissue paper, wearing white cotton gloves and taking great care not to let each touch the floor. We worked quietly as a team to assemble the frames and hang each of the quilts around the room.
It was a ritual, something sacred. I thought about each quilt holding all the thoughts and prayers, intentions and tears of each person who had interacted with it. At times, my eyes welled up with tears as well. Stepping back to take in all eleven of the quilts together, I said a prayer for the coming three days and all the ways that the experience of these quilts might touch and transform others.
In our fractured, frenetic world, it’s not often we get a chance to be part of such a sacred, meaningful and collective expression of standing for what is right and true. I am grateful to all those who participated in this unique opportunity, the Sacred Ally Quilt Tour.
Special thanks to the team that cared so lovingly for the quilts when they visited Framingham~ Susan Cleveland, Peggy Harrison, Bettina Messana, Kate Ostertag, Sarah Whiteman and Ronda Yeomans. In our own small way, we have joined with those others to “speak the truth with (our) neighbors, for we are all members of one another.” (Ephesians 4:25) We are now a part of the story of these quilts and their message of racial injustice and hope to world. May it continue to touch and transform.
Blessings for the summer,
Karen Nell