The Rev. John Pitzer, senior associate rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, wears a chasuble created by parishioner Lindsey Rohm for use during the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 – Oct. 4). She also created the pulpit hanging shown, as well as other liturgical items. Photo: Ashley Eastham
[Episcopal News Service] Last year Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, marked the Season of Creation modestly, the Rev. John Pitzer, senior associate rector, told Episcopal News Service, with just a few prayers each week.
The season is a worldwide ecumenical Christian observance that began with the Day of Prayer for Creation on Sept. 1 and ends with the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, on Oct. 4.
But this year they are “going full throttle,” he said, and are highlighting care of creation during services on all four Sundays in September. “Everything in the liturgy reflects creation in some way,” he said.
This also included the debut on Sept. 7 of a new set of vestments and liturgical pieces designed especially for the season and handcrafted by Lindsey Rohm, with advice from her friend and artist Katie Rafferty. Both women attend the church and had worked together two years ago to create new sets of vestments for all the liturgical seasons – six sets in all.
Rafferty told ENS that she has been involved in the Creation Care Committee at Trinity since it began four years ago. One night a couple of years ago she had a vivid dream about a chasuble painted in varying greens and blues that she knew represented the earth and caring for it. She suggested to church leaders that she could make such a garment, but at the time they opted instead for the six other sets Rafferty created, with Rohm’s help. But Pitzer assured her the church would get around to creation care vestments once the others were finished.
The time was right for the project earlier this year, and Rohm offered to tackle it herself. She told ENS she relied on the phrase she and Rafferty often repeated, in jest, in making the earlier sets of vestments – “How hard can this be?” – as she started preparing to make one chasuble, five priest stoles, a pulpit hanging, and the veil and burse that cover communion vessels on the altar.
Her first challenge was picking a fabric. She and Pitzer had decided to highlight the salmon color that is a part of the logo for this year’s Season of Creation, and she originally gravitated toward the same kind of raw silk material she and Rafferty had used for the earlier vestments.
But the silk looked too flashy to represent a season centered on the earth, she said, deciding instead on linen. “It kind of seems more humble, and it is a real hard-working fabric from the earth,” Rohm said.
She described the fabric color as earthy clay or terra cotta, but she also added a narrow green border along the inside edge of the chasuble. Having something green on the item was important to her and to Pitzer, as the two colors represent harvest season to them.
Communion vessels are covered by a veil and burse Lindsey Rohm created to match other Season of Creation vestments being used by the church. Photo: Ashley Eastham
She also needed a liturgical symbol that would go on all the pieces. The sets she and Rafferty had made used a trefoil design Rohm had helped create – she has a custom embroidery shop on Etsy – but for the creation vestments, she modified an existing pattern of a wheat wreath and added a cross in the middle. Rafferty helped pick the colors of thread that would best complement the fabric.
Rohm then cut out all the pieces for the items, using patterns she and Rafferty had created for their earlier sets. They made those by taking apart older vestments and copying the various pieces onto paper. She then stitched everything together and added the embroidered symbol on each.
Those earlier sets of vestments played a major role in bringing Rohm back to the church. While she grew up at Trinity, she had been away for decades when she decided to attend one Sunday to see how the new vestments looked. “I thought, I kinda like it here, and I’ve been there ever since,” she said.
She added that when the idea for the new vestments were discussed, she wanted to create them as her gift to the church. “I can’t give them a lot of money, but I can give them time,” she said. “I can give them my talent.”
When contacted by ENS, she was preparing for her first Education for Ministry class. EfM is a four-year, small-group formation program based on study and theological reflection. She also will reaffirm her baptismal vows when Louisiana Bishop Shannon Rogers Duckworth is at the parish on Sept. 21.
That upcoming visit prompted Pitzer to contact Duckworth to see whether she wanted to wear white vestments, which is the color normally used for confirmations. Since she has encouraged diocesan churches to embrace the Season of Creation, he made sure to tell her about their new set honoring the season. Her reply, he said, was quick. “Oh, we’re wearing the new vestments.”
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.