The Story of "Standing Tall"
A Quilt Honoring Rev. David H. Eaton
Rev. David H. Eaton was Senior Minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. from 1969-1992.
Quilt crafted by: Shirley Blakely, Jennifer Keller, Kathie Shahan, Amy Odegaard, and Pamela Sparr
Quilt project begun: Fall 2018
Quilt project concluded: January 2021
Materials used: Quilting cottons and batiks, Congolese wax batik, glass beads, knitting yarn, and embroidery floss
Historical support by: Evon Ervin, Mara Cherkasky, and Allison Blakely
The text for this webpage was written by the quilters and edited by Pamela Sparr.
Who was Rev. David Eaton?
Rev. David Hilliard Eaton (1932-1992) was the first African-American minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian, as well as the first African-American minister of a large Unitarian Universalist congregation in the United States. A Howard University alumnus, Rev. Eaton attended seminary at Boston University, earning his Master of Divinity degree there in 1959. Later, he was awarded Doctor of Ministry degrees from both BU and Starr King School for the Ministry. He was ordained as a Methodist minister and received final full UU fellowship in 1977.
Rev. Eaton accepted the congregation’s call to ministry in June 1969 and assumed his position in September. All Souls chose him a year after the city was torn apart by the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. He served as senior minister at ASC until approximately six months before he died on October 21, 1992, preaching his final sermon on Palm Sunday.
Rev. Eaton was a tall charismatic figure, a courageous activist inside and outside of All Souls. He was much beloved and respected for his thoughtful, powerful preaching, his commitment to love, justice and social action, and for being a bridge builder in the community. He was influential in Washington, D.C. politics from the 1960s until his death.
At All Souls, Rev. Eaton established a spirited religious community which was a model of inclusivity and diversity. During the 1970s, African American membership increased significantly, making ASC the most diverse UU congregation in the US at the time. He hired the church’s first openly gay minister. He inspired and nurtured a wave of BIPOC UU seminarians. He took the church’s outward-facing justice ministry in new directions, addressing pressing racial and economic justice needs at local and national levels. Some lasting legacies are: the Columbia Heights Village; the All Souls Housing Corporation dedicated to building affordable housing in the neighborhood; and, the Beckner Fund, focused on promoting human rights and dignity locally.
How And Why The Quilt Came To Be
In 2018, in preparation for celebrating All Souls’ 200th anniversary, Silver Souls commissioned a new oil portrait of Rev. Eaton and a quilt to be made in his honor. Both were initially envisioned for a renovation of the Eaton Room on the church’s upper floor.
Shirley Blakely, a skillful quilter who organized and led earlier church quilting projects, was asked to lead the quilt’s design and construction process. Shirley joined ASC during the early part of Rev. Eaton’s tenure as senior minister and was able to know and work with him throughout his time at the church.
She assembled a team consisting of four other church members, two of whom also joined the church during Rev. Eaton’s tenure: Jennifer Keller, Amy Odegaard, Kathie Shahan, and Pamela Sparr. Each woman brought her own combination of relevant skills and strengths to the project: design, color selection, symbolism, technical cutting and sewing expertise, quilting, and applying embellishments.
The Design Process
The creative process took shape slowly and carefully, as the team consulted the portrait artist, worked with Silver Souls members to coordinate color schemes with their intended redecoration plan for the room, and researched the life of Rev. Eaton.
Choosing the design of a quilt is a critical first step in the process. The group felt it easier and more powerful to use symbolic rather than realistic images to convey Rev. Eaton and his legacy. The team fairly quickly agreed on a theme involving trees, but took some time before settling on the final plan. The Eaton quilt’s specific design was inspired by an appliqué pattern, “Making a Stand,” by Rose Hughes, published in Dream Landscapes: Artful Quilts with Fast-Piece Appliqué, Martingale & Company, That Patchwork Place, Woodinville, WA, 98072.
Work constructing the quilt began indoors in January, 2020. The onset of the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic in February-March 2020 posed tremendous challenges for the project’s execution phase. As the pandemic became more widespread, major businesses, retail stores, and All Souls either closed or limited their public hours. This affected meeting logistics as well as assembling supplies.
Because shopping for fabrics became so difficult, the team opted to use fabrics already in their possession and purchased only a few items under very constrained circumstances.
Despite the decision to cancel all in-person meetings, the team continued to meet regularly using video software on their home computers. However, relying on virtual meetings for artistic projects like quilts poses very severe limitations.
Fabric selection only really took off once the weather warmed up in the late spring. Then the team held outdoor, in-person meetings in Shirley’s yard donning masks and keeping safely distanced from each other. Shirley pulled tables together to create a large, usable design space.
Ultimately, 38 fabrics were selected for the complex landscape design. Each fabric swatch was then numerically coded with a paper pattern to assist with cutting and sewing.
All five women were involved in the design and fabric selection process.
Shirley sewed, quilted, and bound the quilt. Her skills in artfully selecting different patterns of quilting to highlight various shapes and create subtle effects (like the rays of the sun at the top of the quilt) are best appreciated by studying the quilt in person. She also had the specialized equipment and experience to embroider the inscription verse and the chalice. Kathie and Jennifer assisted with embellishments – adding beading and yarn.
The team was never without their associate members in attendance – Shirley’s dog Gigi, and Kathie’s pooch Sophie.
Design Elements and Symbolism
The Eaton quilt includes a large tree in the foreground, along with several smaller trees scattered over rolling hills and valleys with a river that runs through the landscape coming into and out of view. Each carries its own symbolism.
The Primary Tree
The focal point of the quilt is a large tree in the foreground which symbolizes Rev. Eaton’s commanding presence. Indicative of his physical stature, it has a large, tall trunk. To honor Rev. Eaton’s personal heritage and interest in sub-Saharan Africa, the trunk is partially constructed from a wax batik of a giraffe print made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The tree has thick and deep roots which provide stability and are the channels by which the tree itself is nurtured. These roots symbolize the diverse religious, theological, intellectual, cultural, social, and political communities and sources of wisdom which fed him and informed his sermons and his actions. They are not always seen, but are always present.
The branches symbolize Reverend Eaton’s multiple roles — father and family member, Senior Minister of All Souls Church, a popular Emmy-award winning broadcaster, and as a community leader.
We see the tree in all its summer glory – with a full compliment of leaves forming a halo around the trunk and branches. They are the outward manifestation of his many talents and accomplishments. The leaves are of multiple colors and sizes representing the many initiatives, projects, committees and groups he was a part of and helped to shape.
Other Trees
Rev. Eaton was known throughout Washington, D.C. and the country. He was a role model and mentor to many. We see his legacy of nurturing clergy and lay people, politicians and community leaders, family members and friends in the younger trees scattered around the landscape continuing the vision of justice, kindness and love which were the touchstones of his teaching and actions.
Team members review layers of fabric for the hills and valleys (with numerical codes) and test ideas of where decorative gold yarn might be added for extra effect. The early shape of the lower part of the river can be seen.
Hills and Valleys
The landscape is not flat. There is quite a vista. We are reminded of the Unitarian minister Rev. William Ellery Channing’s quote made famous by Rev. MLK Jr. – “The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.” Hills and valleys reflect the different terrains over which one travels in a lifetime which may at times be difficult or easy to traverse. We continue to journey, knowing that the path will not always be flat or straight. We keep strong in our faith.
Hills and Valleys
The landscape is not flat. There is quite a vista. We are reminded of the Unitarian minister Rev. William Ellery Channing’s quote made famous by Rev. MLK Jr. – “The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.” Hills and valleys reflect the different terrains over which one travels in a lifetime which may at times be difficult or easy to traverse. We continue to journey, knowing that the path will not always be flat or straight. We keep strong in our faith.
The River
The River of Life, the Spirit of Life, flows through the quilt with its beginning and end out of sight. The river nourishes the tree and all life in the landscape. It slowly shapes the contours of the hills and valleys, of history itself. It is depicted in shades of blues and purples, indicating its depths and shallows. The flowing water narrows and widens as it travels across the landscape but is always present. Inscribed in the water is a passage from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 16:13 — “Keep alert. Stand firm in your faith. Be courageous. Be Strong. Let all you do be done in love.” This was one of Rev. Eaton’s favorite passages. He used this sacred injunction for many of his benedictions.
The Spirit of Life has many manifestations and is known in many ways. The encircled lit chalice in the river honors Rev. Eaton’s and our congregation’s Unitarian Universalist identity. It is a glowing reminder of our communal commitments to honoring the spark of the divine in everyone, to honoring that all embracing, all nourishing, and often challenging Spirit of Life which urges us to love, to grow and to stand tall.
To See the Quilt
Please visit the Eaton Memorial Wall on the 2nd floor of All Souls Church, Unitarian, 1500 Harvard Street, NW in Washington, DC.
The wall also showcases photos documenting Rev. Eaton’s life and ministry and connects through QR codes with short audio reflections. To see these photos, access the audio files, read and print out an electronic form of this booklet, as well as to learn more about Rev. Eaton, visit the Eaton webpage.
A more detailed biography of Rev. Eaton is contained in a new second volume of ASC history, “Washington Unitarianism: A Bicentennial History of All Souls Church” available to purchase through the church website. For more specific materials related to his ministry, consult the church archives.
ASC congregants have been quilting and engaged in related fabric art projects for at least the last 30 years. These projects have expanded our liturgical arts repertoire, been made and used to provide pastoral care, and assist with meaning-making in various ways. In addition to quilts and church banners, the “Stole Sisters” have designed and created eight liturgical stoles to celebrate the ordination of UU clergy mentored, sponsored, ordained, and/or called by All Souls Church, with an emphasis on BIPOC ministers. Consult the church archives for photos and some of the original projects.