Disciples who enjoy sewing and art are needed to create stoles for the General Assembly. The stoles will adorn the 300 people who will lead the 2009 General Assembly in worship. This labor of love will add both color and honor to the worship leaders.
 
The hands on the stoles will be look like those that represent the leaves of the trees in the General Assembly logo. These hands symbolize many things - helping, healing, loving and working hands. The worship leaders will wear the stoles during worship services at the Assembly, which takes place July 29 - Aug. 2 at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.

Those who make the hands stoles also are urged to pray for the people who will wear them in worship at the Assembly. Additionally, all Disciples are encouraged to pray without ceasing for the Assembly and 7,000 to 8.000 of their fellow Disciples who are expected to gather there. The worship leaders will get to keep the stoles that they wear as a token of Disciples' appreciation for their leadership. Creators of the stoles are encouraged to write notes - perhaps a little prayer of support - to the stole's recipient and pin it to the garment before shipping it.
 
Patia Rarick, a member of Allisonville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis, and gifted fabric artist, created an easy to follow pattern to make the hand stoles. Rarick estimates the cost for materials needed to make a stole at about $9. See a sample pattern and read specific instructions about how to sew the stoles of hands together.

Once volunteers decide how many stoles they will make, they should e-mail the following information under the subject: "GA Hands Stole" to chaskett@ogmp.disciples.org. They should include their name, congregation and its address, their daytime phone number and the number of stoles they will make. If they represent a group of volunteers, then they should identify the group contact person, a daytime phone number, and the congregation and its address.

Volunteers are asked to create two-sided, reversible stoles, with multicolored hands on one side and green hands on the other side. Creators of the garments are invited to select the fabrics for their stoles based on the colors in the General Assembly logos, which are leaves of hands on a tree "...for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:2). However, sewers can still be creative in choosing their fabric patterns, which may include prints, plaids, stripes and similar schemes. They also may feel free to dedicate the stole or stoles during a worship experience in their faith community.