One of my favourite films is ‘Three Amigos’, a spoof Western which sees three actors having to rescue the villagers of a small Mexian village from a bad guy known as ‘El Guapo’. In a scene just before the great showdown, the amigos ask the villagers what their skill and talent is, the one thing that can help to rescue them from their enemy. Somewhat to their astonishment (and despair), an elderly lady tentatively offers the answer, ‘We can sew?’ ‘If only we had known this earlier!’ is the slightly sarcastic reply, but, in true Hollywood style, the sewing skills of the villagers actually do contribute to the defeat of the bad guy as they make hundreds of ‘amigo’ costumes to confuse and baffle El Guapo!
Dearne Churches Together has a similar need of sewing skills! We are looking to be involved in a ‘Good Friday Church Crawl’ when, on Friday 30th March, we will visit as many of the local churches as possible, attending a communion service at Furlong Road Methodist Church at 10.30 a.m. and visiting other churches to see how Easter is celebrated in different traditions. In between, we will be walking from church to church, giving out flowers and Easter chocolates to passers-by, as part of the Easter March of Hope we have done in previous years. To demonstrate that we are all part of God’s church, we will be wearing yellow sashes, which is where the sewing skills come in..
.Those of you who know me know that even sewing a button on a garment is a major production for me! Sewing is definitely not one of my skills. But Our Shed Dearne (based at the Renaissance Centre in Bolton-on-Dearne and host of the Pins & Needles sewing class whose fashion show was a great success at last year’s Dearne Community Arts’ Festival) has offered us the use of their sewing machines one Saturday to help us make the sashes. They have also offered ignoramuses like myself tuition on Thursdays between 5 and 7 p.m. to teach us to hem material, which is what these sashes essentially will need. Between these two offers, hopefully we will be able to make sashes for all who wish to take part in the Good Friday event.
So if you can sew and wouldn’t mind giving up a couple of hours one Saturday… or if you are a novice like me but wouldn’t mind giving up a couple of hours over two Thursdays… please let us know and we can prepare the sashes for Good Friday in good time for one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, when we celebrate the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and look to share this good news with our local communities!