Stitching for the Lord!

By Kim Thomas
Turner Chapel Church Historian

It is first Sunday.

The Turner Chapel altar is covered in white, as has been the custom of the church since the 4th century. The white linens represent the purity given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. They symbolize the white linens he was wound in at burial.

At Turner Chapel, the Stewardesses have worked all weekend to make sure that each table represents a cup of salvation and of the body of our Lord. And the linens, which are so carefully placed, represent the purity of the saints as they receive an outward symbol of salvation. They are placed last.

I had often wondered where the linens had come from, since our new altar was so large and shaped differently from other altars; I assumed they were custom made from a large company and shipped in for the church. I was partly right.

The communion linens were sewn by two of our own members, Stewardesses Terrie Mathis and Annis Gayle. Annis Gayle first began sewing altar cloths shortly after she joined Turner Chapel in 1995. Originally from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, she relocated to Marietta, Georgia to be with her sister who had moved here in 1991. Recruited by Mother Malone, she became the first of the "young" Stewardesses on the board in 1995. Later that year, she completed the altar cloth at the Lawrence Street location. Her first one for the altar had a delicate cross embroidered in the center. Not very long after this first cloth was completed, Turner Chapel experienced phenomenal growth which necessitated the move to hold services at several school locations. At each location, Annis' work was presented on Communion Sunday. While at our Hyde Drive location, she designed rings to hold the altar cloths to the rail to keep it from slipping while worshippers kneeled.

Terrie Mathis has been a Turner Chapel Stewardess since 1979 when she and her husband Perry, returned to Marietta after his Air Force Tour of Duty was complete. Soon after returning, then Pastor Ben Fortson appointed her to the Stewardess Board and made her President, a position in which she served for 10 years. Terrie first began sewing apparelments for the church back at Lawrence Street in 1979. She would make tablecloths for the communion table and covers for the communion containers. She also embroidered towels for the ministers to use when they wash in preparation for communion. The towels have beautiful crosses embroidered in various colors.

While Terrie and Annis have been sewing communion apparellments for over ten years, they both admit that there was a special excitement when it came to sewing the altar rail covers for the new Cathedral. To research the project, some of the Stewardesses took a field trip to view other churches communion rail designs and look at their altar cloths. It was decided that the new altar rail cloths would be hand-sewn and that Terrie and Annis would do the sewing.

The altar rail fabric was quite a lot to work with for the two women who were working from home with the heavy cotton linen fabric. Each piece was 22 feet long, larger that the rooms they were sewing in, and had two be sewn and hemmed carefully to the pleated portion. Terrie and Annis tackled the altar rail cloths with gusto!

Finally the altar rail cloths were complete. The leftover fabric was used to make tablecloths for the table. The project was completed on the Thursday before the first Sunday in April, the Sunday of the first official communion in the new Cathedral. The Stewardesses came on Friday to dress the altar with the new cloths that Terrie and Annis had sewn. It was a wonder to behold! There were 8 pieces of 18 feet for the back communion rail and 3 pieces of 22 feet for the front communion rail. The pleated skirt hung beautifully, and covers fit perfectly over the tops.

Terrie and Annis' next project is to sew a new tablecloth for the communion table that will be made of a fine, delicate eyelet fabric. It will be intricate, but simple in its detail. Both women enjoy using their sewing gifts for the Lord. Like Dorcas, they are always willing to assist the church. So the next time you partake in Communion, remember that women of the church created the cloths hanging here with love, especially for Turner Chapel.

Sewing the altar rail cloth was a major feat, but Terrie just says that she and Annis, and all of the Stewardesses are "Just Ordinary Women doing Extraordinary Things."