Abide With Me: A Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery

Cozy Mystery

3rd in Series

Amazon White Glove (November 17, 2020)

Number of Pages – 300

Synopsis

Change is afoot at Gwenafwy Abbey. Ten new nuns from a convent in Los Angeles join the community of Anglican sisters bringing energy, youthful enthusiasm, and more electronic equipment than Sister Agatha could have imagined. The arrival of the new nuns brings something else to the Abbey—a bit of unexpected notoriety. Claire MacDonagh, an ambitious young reporter for The Church Times, interviews the new sisters for a feature story. Murder is the last thing on anyone’s mind when Claire is found dead on the beach, her mobile phone in the sand. A tragic death, says Constable Barnes. A selfie gone bad. Meanwhile, Sister Agatha is unconvinced and puts on her detective’s hat, only to find herself in the midst of a tangled murder mystery. Her suspect list includes everyone from the new sisters to Reverend Mother to the beloved archbishop of Wales. Time is running out as Sister Agatha uncovers a shocking reality. Will she reveal the truth hidden in an ancient document before it is too late?

Guest Post

The women at my church knit prayer shawls. Their shawls are beautiful, multicolored creations. Each one reveals an intricate pattern. The colors are always warm, the yarn comforting. They come in all shapes and sizes. The shawls fulfill a vital ministry since they are created for people in need of warmth—spiritual and physical. I often take a prayer shawl with me when I visit someone in the hospital. Or I might take a prayer shawl to a person who is housebound. Once I took a prayer shawl to a person who had lost their dog.

I tell the recipient of each shawl that the woman who knitted it prayed as they knit. So that each stitch is a prayer and as they (the housebound person, the grieving person, or patient in the hospital) wrap themselves in the shawl, they are wrapping themselves in the prayers of church women.

The women meet once a week and knit together. It is a supportive fellowship for them. Not only do the shawls give support and care to their recipients, but the women in the group give support and care to each other. When COVID began, the women knitted on zoom. Then as the weather improved, they moved to the center of the town common, circling their folding chairs and dropping their knitting bags on the grass. Now they are meeting at a church member’s house where they can sit far apart while wearing masks. I have occasionally sat in on the group although I’m not a knitter. I can see how much they enjoy each other’s company and how important they are to each other. Every woman knows the other’s story. A husband is going in for a test. A new grandchild late in arriving. An adult child needs prayer. The joys and concerns of life are celebrated in the midst of clicking needles and glasses of wine.

But recently, they stopped knitting prayer shawls. They have turned to yarn bombing.

I had to look it up. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

“Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting.”

Guerilla knitters. I choose that name for them.

The women are doing their yarn bombing for particular project called “Yarn Storm” at the Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Worcester. The women have been “given” a tree at Tower Hill to yarn bomb—a Weeping Cherry tree. When they talk to me about the tree (which they have photographed, measured, and occasionally visit), it felt as if the tree had become part of the knitting circle. Almost as if it were now a member.

They are knitting all sorts of accouterments for the tree: green yarn willows, birds, a trunk cozy (or tree skirt or bark pantaloons. I’ve no idea what you would call it, but you get the idea), even a tiny handcrafted swing to hang pleasantly from one of the branches.

Although Tower Hill would not describe any of their yarn bombers as “activists,” I know my church women are absolute activists. All of them care fiercely about nature. They love gardening and animals and children. They feel true stewardship for the planet. Therefore, the change from prayer shawls to yarn bombing is for them a new ministry.

That unsuspecting weeping cherry tree doesn’t know how lucky it is. It will soon find itself wrapped in the prayers of a group of church women. It will take into its bark and leaves and roots the very breath and life of powerful and prayerful women. It will be like the tree in the book of Daniel, “The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches….”
Never underestimate the power of women in the church. You never know what they might do next.

About the Author

Jane Willan wants to live in a world where everyone has time to read their favorite books, drink good coffee, and walk their dog on the beach, but until that can happen she enjoys life as a pastor and writer. When she’s not working on a sermon, or hiking with her husband, Don, you can find her rereading Jane Eyre, binge-watching Downton Abbey, and trying out new ways to avoid exercise.

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