Prayer Shawls Become Gifts of Love

by YVETTE MOORE

It began as a thought to leave a small gift of love to women, children and youth served by mission institutions in the Western Jurisdiction, United Methodist Women's Assembly host.
But the call to approximately one-million United Methodist Women members for prayer shawls tapped into a well so deep and overflowing within compassionate crafters that institutions, ministries and individuals nationwide will be touched by their prayerful works.

United Methodist Women conferences, districts, local units and circles sent more than 2,000 handmade prayer shawls.

"And that's not counting the ones women brought with them to Assembly," said Linda Douglas, Women's Division staff coordinating the shawl project. "United Methodist Women members did not take this lightly. The shawls have come folded in tissue paper, in protective bubble wrappings with handwritten notes, poems and prayers. The shawls have been prayed over and dedicated in services at local churches. It's just amazing. The deadline was March 1 but the shawls just kept coming."

Ms. Douglas said the shawls came from every jurisdiction, with especially large numbers from Western North Carolina and Virginia Conferences. The call for shawls revealed an abundance of craft ministries and circles of United Methodist Women members.

"We started about a year ago," said Betty Phillips of the prayer shawl ministry at Mountain Valley United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg, Va. The church and unit members give out prayer shawls to people in nursing homes, shut-ins at home, and those in rehab or recovering from illness.

When Ms. Phillips asked unit members for 10 prayer shawls for Assembly, her pastor thought that was a bit much.

"The preacher said, `You're asking for a lot,'" Ms. Phillips said. "But even when I'm boiling apple butter, I pray over the pots and I have apple butter running over! The Lord doubled it! I asked for 10 prayer shawls; I got 23! I think that's great for a little small country church nestled at the foot of Massanutten Mountain."

Like the Mount Valley United Methodist unit, the prayer shawl ministry at Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, started over a year ago.

"It was started by a member of United Methodist Women, but it's a churchwide ministry," said Carol Broadbent, unit member and treasurer of United Methodist Women in East Ohio Conference's North Coast District. The unit sent six prayer shawls to Assembly. "I would say there are probably 25 active knitters. And as soon as they come in, they go out to comfort those in need."

The shawls are usually hand delivered by the church pastor to people who are sick, mourning, even going off to college.

"My daughter received one as a college freshmen," Ms. Broadbent said. "Also we have a Stephens Ministry in our church, and one of the pastors matches a person in the congregation to someone who needs visitation. A lot of those in the Stephens Ministry are given a shawl as a comfort."

Women's Division directors prayed and dedicated a sampling of the shawls during a service at their spring board meeting in Stamford, Conn., in March. The directors voted for the shawls to be distributed throughout the five jurisdictions to ministries that impact the well-being of women, children and youth. The shawls will go to health-related organizations, mission institutions, children of deployed military, prison ministries and mission personnel, including retired missionaries at Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville, N.C.

"The last shawl that came is a beautiful quilt that looks like its made of silk dopioni material made in memory of Myrtle Sells of Calvary United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas," Ms. Douglas said.