Detail:
Our Guest: Mrs. Lorita Kelley of St. John Lutheran Church, Roanoke, Virginia
St. John Lutheran Church members identified this need to create a sacred outdoor garden to honor the unborn and allow people to move forward in their grief. Designed and built by local businesses and church volunteers, it was dedicated in September 2021. Named “The Remembrance Garden for the Unborn,” it displays a large, intricate ironwork window. The ironwork was designed so padlocks can be attached in honor of an unborn child. These padlocks maybe decorated/personalized with initials or customized with jewelry/art to memorialize the occasion. The padlock keys are usually kept by a parent in remembrance of the loss.
During this edition of For Life Live we will:
- Discuss how the Church created the garden, share photographs of the construction of the garden to completion with some seasonal pictures, and share stories of how the Sanctity of Life Committee grew and connected with the community.
- Provide and discuss a study published in “Christianity Today” regarding, “How women who aborted feel about their local church.”
- Share the Sanctity of Life Committee’s goal of expanding the mission of the Remembrance Garden for the Unborn nationally and globally through the website and social media.
- Encourage other Lutheran churches to create a Garden for the Unborn.
GardenForTheUnborn.com is an interactive website developed to reach affected individuals virtually and offer healing and reconciliation on a potentially global level. Through the innovative “Garden Experience” people can access the website when visiting the garden, or in the privacy of their home, to experience healing through creative art, poetry, blogs and music.
Recorded February 15, 2022.