Travels with Remembering the Children Weaving

From February to May this spring, the Remembering the Children weaving has been to three urban and rural parishes. As you will remember, the weaving was created by nearly 100 participants, from churches across the Edmonton diocese, in the spring of 2022. Lines were prayerfully woven in remembrance of children who went to and died at Residential Schools. Since the weaving was dedicated on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2022, it has been hosted by many parishes.

Immanuel, Wetaskiwin’s Reconciliation Team hosted the weaving on Sunday, February 5, when the parish celebrated the Presentation of the Lord. They invited the drummers and singers of Maskwa Ridge to sing honour songs for the children. The congregation responded with love and tears. 

The weaving then travelled with Fiona Brownlee of the Edmonton diocese’s Indigenous Ministries team to Holy Trinity, Edmonton for Sunday, March 5. Assisted by parish lay reader Wynne Whitten-Holmes, she unrolled the weaving while reciting the numbers of children as they went down the aisle. The weaving was placed over the pulpit and in front of the chancel and they invited people to come and touch it after they had received communion. 

The weaving was received by St. Thomas’, Sherwood Park on Sunday, May 7. Fiona Brownlee, assisted by members of the parish’s Reconciliation Committee, rolled out the weaving down the aisle during both services. They stopped for the moments when the numbers of newly known gravesites were named. It was a solemn, and at times hopeful, time. After the service, the Rev. Chelsy Bouwman and Fiona draped the weaving on and around the altar. The weaving surrounded the altar cloth made during the parish reconciliation event in 2021. 

If you would like your parish to host the Remembering the Children weaving, please contact Fiona Brownlee at f.brownlee@edmonton.anglican.ca .