A Pilgrimage With Needle And Thread

5 March 2022 | 9.30am – 3.30pm | Cost: €30 | Booking essential | Maximum 30

Please bring a packed lunch | Also bring a scissors, notebook & pen, other materials will be provide

When the Covid pandemic was announced in Ireland, in March 2020, I decided that I would use my lockdown time to undertake a project that had long been in my mind. I wanted to use the medium of embroidery to deepen my understanding of the lives and theologies of early Christian women mystics. I embarked on a pilgrimage with needle and thread.

I gained  much from my stay-at-home pilgrimage so I am now offering a workshop where others will have an opportunity to share some of my work and thoughts in an engaging and participative way. The workshop will include a presentation on the project, discussion and group reflection on the theology and faith that sustained the women honoured in the embroideries, as well as  private time for each participant to explore their own responses in a creative way.

I hope that, like me, participants will find a new spiritual flourishing by going on a pilgrimage with these extraordinary women. They may even be inspired to creatively explore the voices of other women mystics who have been silenced over the centuries.

Maria Almqvist, community artist, will share with us the reflections that came to her during the COVID lockdown, exquisitely expressed in different textiles and embroideries. Her work will offer us a chance to reflect on the twists and turns of our own lives and how faith has sustained and awakened us.

“I’m a strong believer in the healing power of making, and the empowering of making, being creative”