Heart Circle

Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, at St. George’s, members of our parish gather for Heart Circle: a space to reflect on grief, vulnerability, and the shaping influence of our lived experience. It is a simple gathering, grounded in prayerful conversation and mutual care.

Last week, in keeping with our Anglican tradition of embodied faith where symbol and action help reveal spiritual truth, we explored these themes through a hands-on activity: making a needle-felted pumpkin.

At first glance, it seemed a modest craft. Yet it quickly became something more.

Each participant began by choosing wool: colours and textures that felt right to them. This became a quiet reflection on the gift of life itself. Before achievement or expectation, there is simply what we have been given. No two bundles of wool were the same. No two lives begin the same.

With each unique stroke of the felting needle, the loose fibres slowly took shape. As we worked, we began to see parallels to our own stories. The repeated motion of the needle a symbol of experience. Moments of joy and sorrow, affirmation and disappointment, belonging and exclusion. Some shaping felt deliberate; other moments uncertain or beyond control.

And what was once soft and undefined gradually formed into something distinct.

Conversation emerged naturally around the table.

We spoke about the pressure to “get it right,” the fear of being judged, and the temptation to compare ourselves with others. We acknowledged how our earlier experiences continued to influence us long after they had occurred.

Wool holds memory. So do we.

In Scripture, God is described as potter and we as clay. We are not discarded in our imperfections, but patiently shaped and reshaped. The process can be slow. At times it can be uncomfortable. Yet it remains an act of love and care.

There were moments of laughter as we realized how help was within reach, yet we hesitated to ask. We were reminded that Christian formation is not solitary work. We are shaped in community.

At the end of the evening, with our creations in front of us, we noticed every pumpkin was unique. One even unfolded into a flower. None were identical. None were wrong. None better than another. Each bearing the marks of the process that formed it. Each formed but not finished.

Our night was not heavy, but hopeful. There was laughter, honesty, and quiet insight. In the ordinary act of working with wool, something gently sacramental occurred: an outward action revealing inward grace.

Heart Circle continues to be a place where faith and lived experience meet — not to fix one another, but to listen, reflect, and trust that God is at work in the shaping of our lives.

All are welcome.