THE P RTAL
February 2014
buses, at home, sometimes even at meetings,
I’m stitching. Lots of bright wool, a sort of open-mesh material,
and cross-stitch. And I’m making kneelers. Hassocks. Those things
on which you kneel in church.
Cross-stitch kneelers
Cross-stitch kneelers, worked
in wool, are very much part of the
Anglican heritage. So much so,
that some Ordinariate members
rather howl at the idea of them.
“Ugh!! Bright coloured kneelers in
a beautiful church, draining colour
from everything else and drawing
attention to themselves. Horrible!”
But - perhaps because I am a cradle
Catholic and so I haven’t had that
experience - I really like them.
Auntie Jo a n
Busy, busy, busy
In trains,
Page 4
na
wri tes
some sewing: would
you like to be among
them? Don’t think this
is just ladies’ work plenty of men do this
sort of stitchery. It
simply requires a good
But much more to the point, the
church for which I am busy stitching these is absolutely eye and a readiness to take on the project.
not an old and beautiful one. It is a rather bleak hall in
The pattern is printed on to the material and all
Kent, which is slowly being transformed into a worthy
House of God by an enterprising Ordinariate priest you have to do is follow it, using the wool and needle
provided.
and his team.
St Anselm’s, Pembury
donations
St Anselm’s, Pembury, has long been a Catholic Mass
An email to me via The Portal will start your
centre, but is now opening a new chapter of its history. involvement with this project. We could, incidentally,
also do with some more donations so that we can
“We will remember them...”
enable more people to get sewing. Each kneeler costs
A properly-worked kneeler can be a thing of genuine approximately £50. So if you can’t sew but would like
beauty. A firm in Lancashire provides the whole kit, to help someone else to do so...
and there is a vast range of different patterns. You
can stitch a kneeler that depicts everything from the I’m busy stitching
crossed keys of St Peter to symbols of the Eucharist, of
There is a lot more happening at St Anselm’s than
Mary, of Eastertide, of thanksgiving for the harvest, of just kneelers. But I’ll leave it to Father Ed and his
penitence in Lent, and more.
team to tell you about that in due time. Meanwhile,
I’m busy stitching. And if you had seen the ghastly There are also kneelers that commemorate events in truly ghastly - brown rubber mats that are currently in
our national life - I have seen some very attractive ones use, and have the look of something that belongs in a
honouring the Diamond Jubilee of HM the Queen in downmarket public loo, then you would be even more
2012, and I have myself just completed one for 2014, eager to help with this project.
showing poppies and the Cenotaph and marking the
100th anniversary of the First World War, with those contributing to Anglican Patrimony
Once all the work on the hall at Pembury is
words that we echo year on year and which never fail
complete, it will have the makings of a little gem of an
to move us all “We will remember them...”
English country church. Join in now and be part of the
would you like to stitch a kneeler?
transformation - and make a real contribution to that
Some modest funding enables me to make an appeal Anglican Patrimony which Pope Benedict XVI urged
to readers of The Portal: would you like to stitch a us to cherish.
kneeler? We have been given enough funds to buy
Joanna Bogle DSG
some kits for enthusiasts who are ready to take up