The Weaving Project Unfurled

At the beginning of Advent 2019, and as part of our participation in the “Communities of Calling” initiative of the Collegeville Institute, we embarked on a community art project, exploring images of weaving, threads, vocation, and calling. Under the guidance of our master weaver Carolyn Mount and with on-site direction from Samantha Klassen - our artist-in-residence - the loom was set up every Sunday night at the back of the church, and over the first several months countless hands settled in to weave in a row or three.

We followed the colours of the liturgical year - blue in Advent, gold in Christmastide, green for Epiphanytide, purple for Lent… and then all in person gatherings were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Samantha picked up on the work and continued to weave on our behalf, completing the purple of Lent, the red of Holy Week, black for Good Friday, white for Eastertide, and green through the long season of Ordinary Time. Sometimes she would weave as an act of prayer during our daily online Evening Prayer, and then over the Autumn and early Winter she sat at the back of the church building while we live-streamed our Sunday liturgy.

Along the way she produced a comic book presentation of the work and its imagery, called “The Threads of Vocation”, which can be accessed by clicking here.

Drawing on the advice and counsel of Carolyn Mount (whose voice can be heard in a podcast entitled “The Threads of Vocation”), Samantha steadfastly moved the project through to a point where, shortly before the end of the liturgical year, the weaving was unfurled. This work will now be sent to Carolyn, who will sit with it for a while before determining how it might be put to a liturgical purpose in life of this community.

As a community we are grateful to Samantha for her work in carrying this work forward on our behalf.

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Thanks to Signpost Music for permission to use “Embrace the Mystery” (Gord Johnson), published by Signpost Music and performed by Steve Bell.

The saint benedict’s table Weaving Project was generously funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. through the Communities of Calling Initiative housed at the Collegeville Institute