The following program was held on August 2, 2019 at St. John’s Episcopal Church on the green in Waterbury, CT. 25 people attended, including a group from the Prospect Senior Center. $147 in donations were collected to be used to support St. John’s Wings, a youth outreach program. A few attendees wrote in the margins of the program leaflet which have been folded into more butterflies and hung in the church. Many thanks to Brian Ladden who played the ukelele and djembe for the program.
239 Origami Butterflies
You deserve an uplifting experience.
See 239 origami butterflies hanging in the light shining through stained glass windows. Like a snowflake, each butterfly is unique. It is folded by hand from a Sunday service leaflet printed with special prayer lists and praises. Listen to music that fills the air space. Like Tibetan prayer flags fluttering in the Himalayan air, the mass of butterflies release their prayers and praises to be carried by the music to the upper beams of the Gothic space.
Lucylle Young-Ladden is a student of Ah Moi Yip, an origami teacher at the Prospect Senior Center. Lucylle is a member of St. John’s Earth Ministry. She wanted to re-use the Sunday leaflets, which are usually used for an hour and then put in the recycling bin. When she learned to fold the butterfly, it was to re-use magazine and calendar pictures to make decorations. As Easter approached, she folded the butterflies to joyfully hang in church as symbols of the resurrection.
Lucylle wishes to thank the Prospect Quilters for the thread used to hang the butterflies. Thank you to Cheryl and Stephen Moody, members of the Earth Ministry, and Ellie Nunez who helped to hang the 239 butterflies before Easter services.
Admission is free. Donations may be made to St. John’s Wings, a fundraising committee to support education.
Time will be given to look closer at the stained glass windows in the church, including 5 pairs of windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and the tower stained glass windows designed by Judith McManis, a former Watertown art teacher.
Weather permitting, take a walk in the meditation labyrinth constructed in 2003 and rehabilitated in 2017.
Photography is encouraged. The Church closes at 3pm.