The November 30 edition of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers. This issue’s cover story is a report by Peggy Eastman about masters of needlework who gathered recently at Washington National Cathedral. She writes:
In 1954, the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr. — dean of the cathedral from 1951 to 1978 — suggested adding religious needlepoint to the stone building after he saw fine needlework in Europe. Sayre remarked on “those touches of color and quiet evidence of care which brings warmth and love to cold stone.” His vision led to the formation of the cathedral’s volunteer needlepoint committee.
Each piece of needlepoint in the cathedral is unique, involving the combination of a professional artistic designer and volunteer stitcher. Some stitchers, like Nancy Hussey, have done many pieces across decades; she proudly showed TLC a scrapbook with photos and clippings of the stitched works she has provided to the cathedral for 30 years. While most of the needlepoint in the cathedral depicts traditional themes, the space window exedra cushion uses contemporary cosmic imagery derived from the cathedral’s famed Space Window; it shows the blue Earth as it would appear from the moon. The stitcher took more than three years to complete this cushion.
News
Winning Haitians’ Trust
Stitchers Enrich Church Beauty
Feature
Listen to Stringfellow I By J. Scott Jackson
Books
For the Time Being by W.H. Auden | Review by Jonathan Kanary
Becoming Human by John Behr | Review by Jon Adamson
Self, World, and Time by Oliver O’Donovan | Review by Jordan Hylden
Catholic Voices
Take Justice Seriously, for Love’s Sake | By Donn Mitchell
Voices of Buchenwald | By Alexander H. “Sandy” Webb II
Other Departments
Caeli enarrant
Sunday’s Readings
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