Prayer Shawl Ministry Gathering

Find out about prayer shawls and how you might be part of this ministry. 

One of our licensed lay ministers, Barbara Simmonds, has a ministry knitting prayer shawls and we now have an established group of knitters who have joined her in this ministry. Barbara writes about the history of prayer shawls below.

Prayer Shawl Ministry

The prayer shawl knitting ministry started in the USA in 1998. I was told about it in 2014, when I was struggling to find a way to support a close friend who had been told her cancer was terminal. The idea is that as you knit, you think about and pray for the person you are going to give the shawl to, so that the prayers somehow become part of it. It is a practical way to show your concern for someone, and your prayers that they might be aware of God’s love surrounding them.

Since that first shawl, I have made many more, for joyful as well as sad reasons, and have found that they are a blessing both to those who knit and those who receive them. It is a blessing that would be wonderful to share– a prayer shawl group in the Beaminster team has been a dream for quite a while now, so do please come if you would like to know more. The knitting really is very simple; if you can knit and purl you have all the skill that is necessary.

If you would like to join our prayer shawl ministry please get in contact with Jo at revneary@gmail.com to be invited to our next get together in March 2023.