St Nicholas’ Church in Warndon, Worcester has covered its local area with knitted stars this Advent, encouraging the community to take one home for their Christmas trees! On St Nicholas’ Day last Sunday, they blessed almost 750 different knitted stars, which were hung around the area that evening for people to find in the morning.
Vicar, Diane Cooksey, said: “When we weren’t able to meet last year, we made angels to distribute and had such a lovely response that we thought we’d do something similar again this year.
The idea came from one of our congregation members, Alison Grew, who helped find the knitting and crochet patterns and organise the knitters! We’ve had about 10 – 12 people knitting the stars since February, including a couple of people from outside our church community, and even held a couple of ‘knit and natter’ sessions so people could come together to knit.”
The parish was divided into 8 different areas with pairs of people going out during the evening to hang 90 stars in each. Focussing on the main walkways, stars were hung on lamp posts, hedges, street signs and railings. Each star includes a label which says: “This star is for you from St Nicholas’ Church to represent God’s light, healing and hope. Please take it home or give it to someone who needs prayers at this time.”
“We wanted to make sure the stars were as visible as possible,” continued Diane. “We’re a small church and this is a way in which we can bless our community and share hope. The stars have been really well received, with people saying thank you and posting pictures on both our church Facebook page and also the Warndon Villages community Facebook page. Some people have said that they have taken them to pass onto people who are struggling and one person said she took one into the hospital to give to her patient. It’s a really good way of increasing our presence in the community and showing that we care.”
