3D Flower Represents Sheffield District at Conference

For this year's Methodist Conference, each District were asked to create an object, image or visual symbol which spoke of the lives of people living within our District on a theme of "Gathering, Regathering: Inclusivity"

We put out an appeal on our social media channels and in our weekly mailing and Katrin Hackett our District Administrator volunteered to create our offering.

Katrin created a 3D flower ball (Kusudama) using images from around the Sheffield District. This involves creating single petals from a square of paper which are joined to make a flower, then assembled into the balls. She was able to print photos from each of our Circuits onto the square to arrange them into a beautiful and intricate creation.

Katrin said: "I had made Kusudama in the past as an illustration of how by joining together we can become something much more than as individuals, so thought that this might also work to show some of the wide variety of people, buildings and activities that go on across the District, all gathered together in one object. The Kusudama uses 12 "flowers" with 5 "petals" in each – so there are 60 images in total."

Revd. Ben Scrivens from Barnsley Circuit represented the District by offering the flower to the Conference for display.

Revd. Sonia Hicks, President of the Methodist Conference explained the significance of the objects on social media, she said: "When we planned the Conference service last January, we had imagined a celebration of Methodists finally coming together again from all over the country. We asked every District to bring something which symbolized the life of the people called Methodist in every part of the country. As the plans for Conference changed and changed again because of Covid, we could only have a small number of people in the room. The symbols of connexional Methodism became a way of representing our breadth and diversity across Britain."