"Let these quilts be signs and signals to our hearts, awakening our humanity, calling us into the work of justice, directing us along the path to the beloved community…"
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Maren Koepf, member of the Federated Church UCC, Chagrin Falls, OH
"The soul of the Heartland Conference has been stretched wider and deeper because of the covenantal gift of the New Hampshire Conference through the sharing of the Sacred Ally Quilt Ministry. This ministry of collaboration memorializing the last words of George Floyd's through 10 quilts created by nine congregations has formed a modern "Tent of Meeting" as it moves through our shared life."
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Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins, Conference Minister for the Heartland Conference of the UCC
"The Sacred Ally Quilt Ministry’s carefully arranged patterns are like vessels carrying the patterns of pain and grief that stretch across our nation. They bring together a space for collective prayer, perhaps echoing the words of RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ mother, 'Something good will come from this.'"
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Rev. Michael Anthony Howard, Minister of Faith in Action Living Water Association, Heartland Conference, United Church of Christ.
“Hosting an exhibit of the Sacred Ally Quilts over
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend was a powerful gift, not only to our Church members, but the entire Keene Community. With fabric, thread, compassion, and artistry, the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement filled our gallery space and hearts.”
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Rev. Cynthia Bagley, The United Church of Christ in Keene, Keene, NH
"George Floyd's final words, so tragic, mirrored Jesus' last words on the Cross, and these quilts were a vivid reminder that we need to be able to see Jesus in everyone. It helps us imagine what our world might look like if we actually treated each person we meet as if we encountered Christ? SAQM was a very powerful witness for us.”
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Rev. Mark C. Brockmeier, Community Congregational Church of Greenland, Greenland, NH
"Beautiful, unsettling, heart-breaking, compelling... it's hard to describe the complex emotional response elicited by this remarkable display. I implore you to take the time to see this moving memorial for yourself."
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Rev. Eliot Fay, Nelson Congregational Church, Nelson, NH
"These quilts interrupt the monotony of the day-to-day, to name [that] this is still happening in our world… That’s the invitation that these quilts give to us as a denomination – don’t just talk about it from a performative place, but experience it in your bones…"
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Rev. Darrell Goodwin, Executive Conference Minister for the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ