Rev Zaidie Orr, Minister in the Sheffield Team, tells of their Friendship Group at St James URC and how they have worked together, to make something beautiful in memory of loved ones…..

“We meet at St James United Reformed Church, in Pitsmoor for our Friendship Group every Tuesday, sometimes we bring our knitting or crochet work, sometimes we do a little gentle exercise or chairobics sometimes we swap books, sometimes we dance and sing but we ALWAYS EAT.

Team Ministry had set up a project where each church within the Team was encouraged to chose a parable and then design a piece of art / craft to reflect the story of the parable. Whenever, we gather to eat, our spread always reminded us of the Great Banquet in the Gospel of Luke –‘Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’

We have friends in our group who are in their mid 50’s to almost 90’s, so we needed something that we could all join together.  As we are so bad at threading needles, that meant that we could not do a patchwork or collage, as we have done in the past. We wanted to do something that could be displayed in the church and an activity where we could gather around and chat as we worked.  The idea of constructing a Mosaic came up.

We wanted to make the food which we shared on Tuesdays. We do not usually have pizza and cake every week, but sometimes, someone will bring them to share for a birthday and special occasions. We started by making a list of the food which we usually share as the basis of the design. None of us had done mosaic work before, so it was a learning curve for us all. We each worked in different ways and we enjoyed working and watching the project come together. We have kept a scrapbook as a record of how we completed the task. We did not make the deadline which the Team Ministry had set for the display of the projects. However, we continued to work and we have now completed the project and we share it in memory of our dear Sisters Mary, Josie and Selem. God bless – Zaidie”