Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2013 Issue | Page 26
Wrapped with Love
Bill Montgomery
In 2009, St. Peter’s, Arlington, began
raising funds to help build a home
for children orphaned by the AIDS
epidemic in Masiphumelele, in the
Western Cape Province of South
Africa, through partnership with the
St. Francis Outreach Trust (SFOT) in
Simon’s Town. In 2011, a mission trip
from St. Peter’s helped to finish the
home and work in the township.
The group brought each of the
children and their housemother a
personal gift of a handmade “log cabin”
quilt, incorporating messages of love
from children at St. Peter’s. The beauty
of the log cabin pattern is in the design
of the quilt squares, each with a light
and dark side. The light side symbolizes
the daylight and brighter, happier days
of life, the dark side represents the night
or the darker, harder times; the center
that ties together the light and dark is an
art square depicting God’s love.
SFOT encouraged St. Peter’s to
think about ways to continue this
ministry, and identified 24 more orphan
homes with 150 children deserving of
a Love Quilt. The St. Peter’s Love Quilt
Project is committed to produce the
quilts to meet this need.
St. Peter’s hosted a table at the
last two diocesan Councils to generate
support for the project. Ten Episcopal
churches and schools in the Diocese
participated last year, and several
in Florida and elsewhere. Churches,
schools, Scout troops, synagogues and
other organizations are creating art
squares. Quilters throughout Virginia
and beyond have volunteered to sew
the quilts.
On World AIDS Awareness Day,
December 6, 2012, in conjunction with
the Embassy of South Africa, St. Peter’s
hosted a “Messages of Love Gala” at
the Falls Church Episcopal to display the
next 45 completed quilts, raising over
$2,000 for the Love Quilt Project.
In January, these quilts were
delivered to children in South Africa, and
retired Archbishop of Cape Town the
Most Rev. Njongo Ndungane formally
endorsed the Love Quilt Project.
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The most important aspect of the
quilt project is the art squares: God’s
love is expressed through the children
creating the squares. St. Peter’s provides
groups with fabric squares and an
explanation about the importance of
sharing our love with those who are
less fortunate. Children then create
messages of love through their
artwork. The completed quilts
meet a basic human need for
both warmth and love.
Last year, St. Peter’s
received a $5,000 Mustard
Seed Grant from the
Diocese to support
publication later this
year of a children’s
storybook about
the power of God’s
love and the magic
of the quilts.
The book will
recount the
story of the
first mission
trip, the
origin of
the quilt
idea and the
message of
love embodied
in each quilt. It
will be a teaching
aid for groups creating
the art squares, and a copy
will be delivered to each of the
homes receiving quilts to tell orphans
the story of the quilts and that there
are people who care for them. Through
bookstores such as Virginia Theological
Seminary, Shrine Mont and the National
Cathedral, St. Peter’s hopes it can
contribute to a wider awareness of the
crisis in South Africa. Any proceeds will
directly support the quilt project and
homebuilding efforts.
Art squares are now being created
for 100 quilts to be delivered to orphan
homes in 2014. If you know of a group
of children that would like to send
messages of love through art squares or
someone who would like to make a quilt,
Virginia Episcopalian / Spring 2013
A St. Peter’s Love Quilt wraps a child with
warmth and love.
please contact the Love Quilt Project at
[email protected].
The project has touched the lives
of the orphan children as well as the
children and adults participating in
America. The added symbolism is that
it crosses the oceans, literally stitching
together communities as one to serve
the desperate needs of these children in
South Africa. t