I led my first Red Thread Circle today with 19 women as part of our church’s Women’s Fellowship annual Day of Reflection. The theme was “Walking in Hope,” based on a resource by Jan Richardson. I set up an altar (see Photo below) that had a circle of friends candle, a liturgical stole linking Advent and Lent (the material was for a retreat to be held in Advent! So I had some theological ground to cover!), a ball of red thread and scissors and a Communion set. I connected us as women of faith and women of hope.And talked about the red thread stories connecting us as women across time and space. I had two inquiries: 1. What gives you hope? as we passed the red thread and. 2. What do you
hope for? When we cut the thread. As we ended I reminded them that even though we as women tend to want to take care of everything we are only responsible for our part of the thread. We need to only work toward those things we hope for, not the hopes of everyone. We then moved into a poem about hope and the rest of our day. The women loved the ritual and commented that they had never heard about the Red Thread before but loved it.
