Many of my friends knew about the “bowl project” I volunteered my husband and myself for.  In short, Rev. Peggy Bosmyer, the first Episcopal woman priest in Arkansas (and the first west of the Mississippi), died last year of cancer, being only 60 years old.  As Episcopal Church Women, we wanted to do something special for her in memoriam.  We’ll do something larger at Camp Mitchell, but we also wanted to do something unique and personal . . . something special.

Thus, the bowls.

Peggy adopted a practice inspired by the Benedictines.  The story is that she herself had a pottery bowl she kept by the front door.  To remind herself of her Baptismal vows, she would cross herself with the water from the bowl before she would leave the house, and she would bless her children, too.  Others were inspired from her sharing of this practice.

The bowls were made . . . somewhere around 70 of them . . . by Casey and me.  I trimmed and stamped them with a leaf.  Some of my friends helped me paint on the glaze.  Rev. Marti Dalby blessed the bowls at our ECW Fall Gathering on October 24th at Camp Mitchell.

The remaining bowls went back to St. Margaret’s, Peggy’s church.  I kept one of the blessed bowls for myself and my family.  It sits on a table near the front of the house, one of our altar tables.  Now I, too, am reminded of my Baptismal vows, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.