NEWS

Every strand tells a story

"You're not in this alone.
I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God."
- Colossians 2:2
from The Message

The hundreds of strips of fabric stretched over the wooden loom at Faith United Methodist Church in North Canton are more than what they seem. Some are polka-dotted, some are striped, some are plain while others pop. All of them, though, are marked by handwritten reflections on journeys of faith.

They are the old metaphor of story as tapestry made literal.

The Fabric of Faith project may have begun as a sort of "get-to-know-you" idea in the minds of co-pastors Steve and Cara Stultz Costello, who were appointed to Faith UMC early this year, but it grew quickly into something with a much bigger purpose that pulled together members from all corners of the congregation.

Wondering how they'd become acquainted with a much larger church than either had served in the past,  Steve and Cara approached Faith's lay people in April – a few months before their official arrival – with, Steve recalled, a general "idea of people coming together and writing something on a piece of fabric, and weaving those pieces together" to represent the church, and "more importantly, to symbolize God's work of weaving the church together."

"We could have just gotten together and said, 'Tell us about yourselves,'" Steve said, "but we wanted to hear people specifically reflect on God at work in themselves."

What they asked people to share on those pieces of fabric was not just facts about their membership at Faith, but the story of their faith journey within the church.

Starting in late summer, the church hosted gatherings five to six times per week, mostly with groups of 12 to 15 people, though one meeting attracted 43 attendees, and the Youth Group meeting numbered 50. Each event began with the lighting of a candle used at every meeting, a prayer, scripture and song. Then people were invited to think about their Faith UMC story and write it on both an index card and the strip of fabric to be woven into the tapestry.

Pam Honnold, who scheduled a team of scribes to record journals of the gatherings and assembled the contributions, notes and photographs into thick binders commemorating the story in print, said Steve and Cara's participation played a big part in getting members comfortable with exploring and sharing their faith journeys.

"You felt they knew you, and you knew a little of them, because they shared at the meetings, too," Pam said. "I've never felt such a part of the Faith family. I laughed, I cried, I prayed."

"We invited people to be really candid with their faith," Cara said, noting that tears were shed at every gathering. "There's no way we could have imagined how it turned out. Not only did we get to hear the stories ... but people got to hear each other's stories."

Over the course of 34 gatherings – all of which the co-pastors attended – more than 515 Faith members took part. That's nearly half the church's official membership of roughly 1,100, and well above the average Sunday attendance of 444.

The team of people working on the project continually grew as well, from church members with weaving experience who tightened and maintained the tapestry as it evolved to those who worked on designing, mailing and tracking invitations, to those who prepared the fabric and the refreshments.

"I've always said that every person in every pew has a story to tell," Pam said. "It was just so awesome to hear ... how this family of faith has helped people through times. Every person has come away with a  new excitement and a new understanding that for this church to survive, it's not just the pastors and the lay people: It's everyone involved."

And in recognition that the Body of Christ extends well beyond any individual church, Faith representatives invited the community to participate, extending invitations to other local churches and denominations, city council members, reaching out to previous Faith UMC pastors and visiting area nursing homes.

The Fabric of Faith remains a growing project. Although the original plan called for the tapestry to be removed from the loom, the wooden frame has become part of the story and idea itself: Keeping the tapestry mounted allows for the addition of new strips of fabric, new voices and new stories.

"It's not a finished product," Steve noted of the untied edges and the gaps. "It visibly looks like it needs more, which is the right symbol."