Walk into the historic nave of Christ & St. Luke’s, and your senses are greeted by a breathtaking display of sights and sounds. From our soaring 1909 Gothic Revival stonework to the majestic music of our parish choir, every detail is designed to celebrate the formal, sensory beauty of our Episcopal tradition. Yet, sacred beauty is not static; it is a living, breathing tapestry continually shaped by our community.
Six years ago, our clergy stalls featured mismatched and increasingly, rather ratty-looking red velvet cushions. Seeking an environment that reflected our deep spiritual commitment, then choir member Christine O’Keefe approached Music Director Kevin Kwan about resurrecting the church’s historic Needlepoint Guild. “The people who stitched all the original cushions at the altar and in the chapel have long gone to their heavenly reward,” Christine explains. “So, we resurrected the project.”
Today, that resurrection is blooming in our choir stalls. The guild is finishing its second phase: Nine custom cushions commemorating the choir’s UK evensong residencies at English cathedrals over recent years. Designed by Sheilah Anne Osher of Fort Worth, Texas, each cushion represents a specific cathedral. Woven into the borders are the official county flowers of those cathedrals, and a stitched lyric from an anthem by a historic composer associated with that cathedral—such as York Minster’s “Blessed city, heavenly Salem” written by John Mason Neale and set to music by Henry Purcell, or Gloucester’s “Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks” by Herbert Howells.
We’ve made a miniature documentary about the project and you can watch it on our YouTube channel here:
For our stitchers, needlepoint is a profound spiritual practice. Each cushion requires 90,000 painstaking stitches, stitched on the diagonal to prevent canvas distortion and stretch. “I’ve been doing it for 50 years,” says Nancy Tatterson, a fellow needlepoint guild member who picked up the practice when she had newborn twins: “I called it my idiot’s work because I could do it and still watch them and it calmed me down.”
Christine agrees: “It’s very calming, a form of active meditation, because it’s repetitive, rhythmic motion. It occupies enough of your mind that it keeps at bay all the worries of the day. You just find yourself sort of in this flow moment of stitching,” she said.
Charlie Davey, another prolific stitcher in the needlepoint guild, is known for moving room to room, chasing natural daylight to sew by. When her husband asked why she kept wandering, she replied: “Phil, I’m seeking the light!”
This sacred artwork also connects us to our history at the church. Nancy’s husband’s great-great-uncle helped build our sanctuary, back in 1909. Stitching has become a way to weave her own story into the fabric of the church. “I see all the handiwork that went into building the church,” Nancy says. “What I’m doing is very minor, but it lets me know that I’ve given part to the church too.” And these new cushions will endure for generations. “These cushions will long outlive everyone who’s made them,” Nancy muses. “They will me!”
Our former rector, Win Lewis, often described our sanctuary as a “thin place,” where the veil between this world and the next is translucent, creating “an environment where it was very easy to fall in love with God,” Christine said. When she hears the parish choir singing on both sides as she is walking up to the altar rail during Communion, she experiences that. As famed author and theologian C.S. Lewis wrote, “gazing upon beauty fills us with an insatiable longing for something beyond this world,” she said.
The ampersand in the name of Christ & St. Luke’s represents our history as a “conjunctive people”, bringing together different stories, traditions, and parishes. Today, that ampersand is alive in our Needlepoint Guild, connecting historic English choral traditions with modern active meditation, and bringing stitchers, donors, and singers together in a shared legacy of beauty.
As of May 2026, seven of our nine new choir cushions were complete, with the guild aiming to finish the remaining two within the next six months. When they are complete we will dedicate them during a Sunday morning service and display them for all to see.
If you are a curious seeker looking for a spiritual home, or an arts lover drawn to sacred beauty, we invite you to come, sit, and find your place at Christ & St. Luke’s.
