Janet Hansted Meadors

Scarlet is the liturgical color for only one day of the Christian calendar, that is Good Friday. The background of the stole is scarlet representing we are still in in an age, and in the midst of a church that is killing both the message and the messengers of God’s good news.

The word of hope comes in hearing the voice of God naming and claiming all of us in our baptism – “beloved.” Not beloved, if you will change, simply “beloved.”

The somewhat translucent writing and sign of the baptismal shell represent the Spirit’s work in our midst, and the hope that one day soon we as the church will all live into our full identity as beloved people of God, no exceptions.

I believe that day is coming.

Paraphrasing from the Service of Ordination: “Gracious and Almighty God, who has given us to the will to do these things, graciously give us the strength and compassion to perform them.”

Originally a part of the collection of stoles housed by ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation, this stole was donated by them to the Shower of Stoles Project in 2015.