The
Healing Ministry of the Prayer Shawl
March 2009
Written by: Pastor Buddy Hubbard
First Presbyterian Church,
East Aurora, NY
As Diane Thurn and Suzanne Parkhurst announced that the First Presbyterian Church, East Aurora mission offering for that Sunday, February 15, was for more funding to purchase yarn for the prayer shawl ministry, an idea was born. Just three days before on Thursday night at 10:20 p.m. Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a home in Clarence killing all 49 passengers (and an unborn baby) and one of the occupants of the house. The pain of grief was staggering for everyone, not only for the families who lost a loved one, but for everyone throughout the entire Western New York community. How could we help ease the pain?
For the past few years the Prayer Shawl Ministry team had made and given out over 400 prayer shawls that had touched countless lives with God’s healing love and embrace in times of disease, tragedy, loss, and death. Could there be a more appropriate time than this to blanket people once again with God’s healing love? The challenge was to find at least 50 prayer shawls so that each family member could receive one.
With the Presbytery’s assistance in contacting all of the Presbyterian Churches in Western New York, within hours 69 prayer shawls were donated, an incredible offering, and enough to offer at least one to each of the families. Because Rev. Langdon “Buddy” Hubbard (Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, East Aurora) was part of the pastoral care response team for the Red Cross he was able to deliver the shawls directly where they were needed. The only problem was that permission had to be granted from Continental Airlines and the Red Cross to distribute them. A woman named “Susan” (not her real name) was the one who would have to make this determination and she wasn’t sure yet if it could be done.
On Tuesday evening when the Red Cross briefing meeting was done Pastor Hubbard’s presence was requested for a special meeting concerning a family he had been working with. He asked the person in charge what her name was. “My name is Susan,” she said. She was the Susan who alone could give permission to proceed. The case was made and she decided it was the right thing to do. “Bring the prayer shawls in. We’ll give them out on Wednesday morning.”
The next morning the prayer shawls were distributed. How would it go? Would the people take them? Would they find them helpful? The response was overwhelming. Chaplain Beth Lenegan, PhD., Lead Chaplain for the Red Cross sent out the word: “Bring more...as many as you can get. They love them! They’re wearing them in the lobby, at lunch, walking around. The prayer shawls are bringing so much comfort. It’s amazing.”
By Wednesday afternoon 30 more prayer shawls were donated and Pastor Hubbard delivered them. When he walked in the door of the hotel, families were actually waiting at the door for the shawls. Walking behind a mother and her two teenage daughters, each of whom was wearing a prayer shawl that they had just received, he overheard one of the girls say, “I love this shawl.” And then she caressed it, holding it to her cheek. This is what the prayer shawl ministry is all about, bringing healing, hope, and life again, in this time of loss. In a symbolic way these shawls have become means of grace, an open window to God’s healing love. To be wrapped in a shawl is in a very real way to embrace and to be embraced by the loved one you have lost, indeed to be embraced by God. It is no wonder that healing flows.
When women and men make prayer shawls they are never sure who will receive their work of art, knitted in love and prayer. All they know is that someone will be blessed by it, and hopefully God’s healing love will flow into their lives through the shawl they have created. Now that more than 250 prayer shawls have been given to each of the families and many first responders who also need much healing there is no doubt as to the significance of this ministry. The prayer shawl ministry has changed lives and helped begin the process of healing.
We give thanks to all the Prayer Shawl Ministry teams from the following churches and ministries who have made a difference at this time of tragedy: Crittendon Presbyterian Church, Deerhurst Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church (Buffalo), First Presbyterian Church, East Aurora, Orchard Park Presbyterian Church, Wayside Presbyterian Church (Hamburg), Ebenezer U.C.C. (West Seneca), St. Peter’s U.C.C. (West Seneca), Nativity Lutheran Church (East Aurora), St. John’s Lutheran Church (West Seneca), Baker Memorial U.M.C. (East Aurora), Ascension Episcopal Church (Buffalo), Sisters of Mercy (Buffalo), Sisters of St. Francis (Williamsville), and others who are unnamed but not forgotten.
When the Prayer Shawl Ministry began in 1998 by Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo, Bristow wrote: “Shawls...made for centuries, universal and embracing, symbolic of an inclusive, unconditionally loving, God. They wrap, enfold, comfort, cover, give solace, mother, hug, shelter and beautify. Those who have received these shawls have been uplifted and affirmed, as if given wings to fly above their troubles...” Thanks be to God that the families of Flight 3407 may yet fly again and know God’s healing love. And thanks be to God for the healing ministry of the prayer shawl and all who knit and pray.
March 2009
Written by: Pastor Buddy Hubbard
First Presbyterian Church,
East Aurora, NY