Quickenings holds fifth annual memorial service
The Layman Online, June 14, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky. –”The Fifth Annual Memorial Service to Honor Our Creator and His Children, Infants and Pre-born Children Lost to Miscarriage, Abortion and Stillbirth” was held Wednesday evening in Louisville. The service was sponsored by Quickenings.
Christine Shaw, Quickenings’ executive director, welcomed those present with a call to commemorate the lives of those unborn children and infants who had died during the previous year.
The Rev. Robert P. Davis, executive director of The Presbyterian Forum, read a poem written by the late Dr. Clayton Bell, former pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. The poem was written for the funeral of his granddaughter, who died only hours after birth.
The poem began, “You broke into our lives/a surprised intrusion of Divine grace/like an ill-formed comet/flashing bright, but soon lost in sight.”
The Rev. Robert P. Mills, associate editor of The Presbyterian Layman, delivered a sermon titled “The Knowledge of God.” Based on Jeremiah 1:1-10, the sermon focused on God’s knowledge of his human creation, even those never born.
Maria Cardenas shared a moving testimony of how her own life had been affected by an abortion her mother had undergone years earlier, an abortion Cardenas did not learn about until she was an adult.
Quickenings board member Carl W. Schartner then invited all those who desired to sign “A Book of Life,” in which they could write the names of unborn children and infants they or their loved ones had lost.
Following the service, roses were handed to those who had suffered the loss of an unborn child or infant, and individual prayers were offered for those who so desired.
For more information on Quickenings ministries, call 412-636-9050 or e-mail Plc.quickenings@usa.net.