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ATTLEBORO -- Prayer shawl ministries are growing in popularity, as evidenced by a recent workshop at Immanuel Lutheran Church that drew 54 people from 12 houses of worship.

The workshop featured guest speakers Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo, the co-founders of the Prayer Shawl Ministry, and many of those groups are planning to begin prayer shawl ministries in their own congregations. Besides Immanuel Lutheran, congregations represented were Second Congregational and Centenary United Methodist in Attleboro, Congregation Agudas Achim, the city's synagogue, the First Congregational Church in North Attleboro, St. Brendan's in Bellingham, Arnold Mills, St. Aidan's and Calvin Presbyterian in Cumberland, R.I., St. Pius' and St. Peter's in Yarmouth, Covenant Congregational in North Easton, as well as the Dighton Council on Aging.

Shawls are usually knitted, but also can be crocheted, quilted, woven or machine knitted, with many blessings prayed into every shawl as it takes shape.

The shawls, imbued with comfort and solace, or celebration and joy, are then given to individual recipients.

Bristow and Galo began the ministry after graduation from the 1997 Women's Leadership Institute at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and is now spreading internationally. Its Web site, www.shawlministry.com, includes patterns, prayers, photos, and much more.

At Immanuel Lutheran, 10 knitters have met twice a month for the last 2 years, and have made about 58 shawls, which have been given mainly to people who have been seriously ill or who have experienced a death in the family.

A prayer is said before knitting begins, followed by a period of silence, then peaceful music is played, followed again by a silent time. Once per quarter, the church has a healing service in which the shawls are blessed at the altar; the most recent service was last Sunday.

Shawls also are made for other occasions, such as weddings or births, and many knitters vary the "traditional" pattern developed by Galo.

However, the knitters generally keep to patterns and configurations that incorporate the No. 3, which is symbolic not only in Christianity (the Triune God or the Holy Trinity, for example) but also in the Kaballah and in Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist traditions, as well as in secular concepts, as in the cycle of birth, life and death.

The choice of yarns, colors, whether to add fringe or other additions is open. Immanuel Lutheran knitters often use a pattern that incorporates crosses, for instance, emphasizing the Christian theme.

St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Yarmouth incorporates fish designs, also a Christian theme, into their shawls, and also is linked to the town's fishing heritage.

Donna Kendall can be reached at 508-222-1617 or at donnakendall@verizon.net.