During the first week of March 2024, we took part in LOUDfence.
LOUDfence began as a protest movement in Australia in 2015 and has spread far and wide since then. The idea is to tie brightly-coloured ribbons to a fence as a sign of support for and solidarity with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. These "loud" ribbons also represent a determination to break the silence around abuse.
Our LOUDfence was displayed in Newcastle Cathedral from 3 March 2024 alongside a displacy of creative work by survivors. The survivors leading on this project thought that a fence full of loud strawberries, inspired by the artwork from If I Told You, What Would You Do? would be more appropriate than ribbons in our Diocese.
A huge thank you to all of the crafters who contributed 100s of beautiful strawberries for our LOUDfence event in Newcastle Cathedral. The fence will remain in place in the Cathedral while an new installation is created for the strawberries, and we'll let you know when you can seem them in their new home. We put together a short film about the event, with interviews from those who were involved in the LOUDfence service on 6th March 2024. You can view the film below.
Many thanks also to the strawberry knitters who joined us in July for a conversation with Rev Dr Steve Taylor from the Adelaide College of Divinity in New Zealand. Steve is undertaking research on knitting in Christian practice, and we will let you know when his research has been published.
Why Strawberries?
Those who have experienced abuse in the church often feel (or are made to feel) of little value. Valuing them for who they are right now means seeing them not as we (or they) might wish them to be, but as God sees them. This means recognising life and growth in all ways, not just in ways we are accustomed to valuing.
The emblem we chose to represent this idea in the If I Told You, What Would You Do? resources is the strawberry plant. At all points in their life cycle, strawberry plants are productive: when they have only leaves, they are taking nourishment from the sun for growth and vigour; when they have flowers, they are preparing for a time of fruitfulness; when they are in fruit, they nourish others. Sometimes they have flowers and strawberries at the same time; sometimes they have neither, but at those times they might be sending out runners to create a new plant. And all this productivity comes from growth out of muck — not despite the muck, but because of it, as Sarah finds on her allotment. We chose the strawberry plant to symbolise this growth: we are thriving because of the muck that has happened to us, and we are using it positively.
In the strawberry plants so beautifully painted for us by artist Heulwen-Marina Carrier, the muck is as prominent as the leaves, runners, flowers and fruit. The strawberry design does not minimise the bad things that have happened to so many of us in the church, but it also asks: can we make some good out of a bad thing?
During the first week of March 2024, we took part in LOUDfence. 
We are very grateful to the many volunteers who knitted strawberries using the following knitting patterns Knitting pattern, Crochet pattern 1 and Crochet pattern 2. You can read more about the event's succes here. 
The emblem we chose to represent this idea in the