Stitched with Care at Kippax
Three years ago, a minister at Kippax Uniting Church left a basket of wool and knitting needles out during worship, inviting anyone to pick it up. Since then, that quiet gesture has grown into a steady stream of handmade blankets, teddies and angels, offering warmth and welcome to people sleeping rough, escaping violence, and rebuilding their lives after arriving as refugees.
At Kippax Uniting Church, care for the community is woven together quite literally. Each Sunday, a basket of wool and knitting needles sits ready at the back of the church, and by the time the final hymn is sung, a few more rows have usually been added to a blanket bound for someone who needs it.
It started about three years ago with a simple gesture from Rev Dr Karyl Davison, minister at Kippax. "I left some yarn and knitting needles on the table at the entrance of the worship space and invited people to use them during worship," Karyl said. What began as an invitation to a handful of people has since grown into a steady stream of blankets, passed on to UnitingCare Kippax for distribution to people sleeping rough, escaping domestic and family violence, and refugees rebuilding their lives in Canberra.
The habit has since become a shared rhythm of the congregation, with different people pitching in to keep it going. Congregant Verna Comley is one of them, picking her needles back up after she retired from teaching last year. "I used to knit when I was younger, and I loved knitting, but with being so busy working full-time and teaching and everything else, I found that I didn't have as much time," Verna said. "Retiring gave me this opportunity to kind of get back into it, and I just love it."
Now Verna makes sure there is always knitting to go for anyone who wants to pick up a bundle during the service. "They can just pick up a bundle and sit with it and knit with it, and then they just drop it back into the basket when the church is finished," she said. Some people knit every Sunday. Others, like Verna, knit every day. "I can't not knit now," she laughed.
"It's all plain knitting," Verna explained, "so you're still listening to the sermon and joining in with the singing, but you're able to kind of knit without one detracting from the other." Verna coordinates the colours and pulls the squares together, while another member of the congregation sews them into finished blankets.
A blanket that says "you belong"
For Verna, the real reward is seeing what the blankets go on to mean for the people who receive them. A family new to the congregation, with two young children, recently began attending Kippax. One of the couple's daughters saw the blankets on display and fell in love with a pink one, so the congregation gave it to her to take home.
"That's nice because it's kind of brought that small family closer to the church," Verna said. The family has kept coming back. "The girl's mother said it wasn't that gesture on itself, but this church has really welcomed them and made them feel included," Verna added. "That blanket, it was a beautiful pink one for the little girl. It kind of gave her a sense of belonging, and a sense of welcome."
Smaller, knee-length blankets have found their own purpose too. One elderly member of the congregation who feels the cold now has a warm blanket waiting for her lap every time she comes to church. Other blankets have gone further afield, to a refugee family who arrived in Canberra in the middle of winter without the warm clothing and bedding they needed.
Verna also decided to put the group's work on display, laying finished blankets out at the front of the church rather than leaving them out of sight in the basket. "I felt that we should show people what we are achieving," she said. The response, she found, was immediate. "There were people coming up and thanking us and commenting... I think that had great benefit for the church and for all of us as a congregation."
Beyond blankets
The knitting basket at Kippax has grown to hold more than blankets. The congregation has also knitted trauma teddies, a bagful of which was recently delivered to Canberra Hospital, and small knitted angels, given out at Christmas to people in the community. "It sort of has just evolved," Verna said. "Some people knit, some people donate wool, some people just do the joining up. There's lots of people. Some people do it very casually, and other people are a bit more dedicated to it now."
The blanket ministry sits within a much bigger picture of care at Kippax. The church is affiliated with UnitingCare Kippax, a community service agency that has grown out of the congregation over close to 50 years and now supports the West Belconnen community through early childhood programs, emergency relief, employment and training, family support services and social enterprises. UnitingCare Kippax says the need for that support has only grown, with a significant rise in demand for emergency relief since the beginning of the pandemic.
None of it happens without people willing to give their time. UnitingCare Kippax relies on hundreds of volunteers from the Kippax congregation and the wider Canberra community, supporting everything from playgroups to hamper packing.
At Kippax, it started with a basket of wool left out for anyone willing to pick it up. Three years on, it has become a quiet, steady act of care, one row at a time.
