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June is when we celebrate Pride Month, and so when the Worship Task Force was thinking of ways to make our worship space more welcoming, we thought it would be exciting to create green paraments that reflect how both our congregation and our world as a whole are comprised of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

The most obvious way these new altar cloths reflect that goal is in their rainbow theme--we included the traditional colors of the rainbow in the project, and also added in teal, pink, black, and brown to bring in the colors of the Pride Progress flag.

The pattern of the quilt was also chosen intentionally to demonstrate inclusion and belonging. For the main altar cloth, we created squares using a technique called "string quilting," which is where you take thin scraps of fabric--ones that are often too skinny to use in a different project--and sew them next to each other to create squares. This was a wonderful way for us to get the whole congregation involved in the project, as many congregation members donated fabric for us to incorporate into the quilt. By using scraps to create this quilt, we also wanted to create a visual reminder that even if we are feeling useless, left out, or left over, we are still part of God's amazing, beautiful plan--we just might not see it yet.

Another key feature of string quilts is that the strips don't have to line up with each other, which you can see if you look at the squares up close. Often, we feel like we have to be just like those around us, that we have to be "normal." But these paraments can serve as a reminder for all of us to be who we are, just as we are. The beauty and magic of this pattern is it creates squares regardless of the size of the individual strips. We don't need to line up perfectly with those around us to be part of God's family, and in fact, the world is more interesting when we don't!

Finally, the variety of fabrics used in these new paraments are a wonderful reminder that our world is beautiful because of the all the different patterns we bring to it. If we look at the fabrics individually, they might seem out of place--there's Halloween fabric, Girl Scout fabric, Star Wars fabric, and more. There are different types of fabric as well--cottons, knits, and even some corduroy! But the overall effect of the paraments is created because of, not in spite of, this tremendous variety of fabric. No matter who we are, we are part of and contribute to the beauty and wonder of God's family.

Thank you to everyone who donated fabric, and thank you in particular to Sue Fickle, Jane Kennedy, Priscilla Berg, and Dawn Beling who helped sew squares together! We hope that you enjoy the colors these paraments bring to our worship space, and, even more importantly, that you see yourself among the strips and patterns that come together to create God's beautiful family.