It began with a simple invitation: Would you make a poppy?
In July 2025, we asked our churches and neighbours to knit, crochet, or craft poppies from recycled materials for a display at St Peter’s Church, Blackley. We hoped for a few hundred...we received over 2,500.
They came from every corner of our community. From seasoned crafters and curious beginners. From children and grandparents. From people rediscovering creativity after illness or loss. From those quietly stitching through stress and sleepless nights. Some poppies were made in memory of loved ones. Others were offered as prayers for peace. Each one carries a story. Together, they’ve become something extraordinary.
The cascade now hangs in the light at St Peter’s, flowing from the gallery to the floor like a river of remembrance. It is beautiful, but its beauty runs deeper than colour and shape. Each poppy is unique, yet each plays its part in the whole. It is a living picture of St Paul’s words:
“We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” (Romans 12:5)
What began as a craft project became a shared act of fellowship. People swapped patterns and wool, met up to stitch and chat, and found themselves part of something bigger. For some, it was a way back into community. For others, a way to offer love in quiet, tangible form. The making became a ministry.
We heard stories of people who hadn’t picked up needles in years, now making poppies with joy. Of children proudly showing their first creations. Of neighbours who hadn’t spoken in months, now sharing cups of tea and bags of buttons. The cascade grew not just in size, but in meaning. It became a tapestry of connection, care, and creativity.
Each poppy is a small act of generosity. Together, they form a spirit of generosity. A shared offering that speaks of hope, healing, and belonging. In this, we glimpse the kingdom of God. Not distant or abstract, but rooted in ordinary acts of love.
As Jesus said,
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
The poppies echo that love. The kind that gives, that serves, that remembers.
And Isaiah’s words ring true here too:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
That light shines in every poppy, every story, every act of kindness that brought this cascade to life.
The cascade is not just a tribute to the past. It is a call to live differently now. To remember not only with silence, but with action. To honour those who gave their lives by building peace in our own time. To choose reconciliation over resentment, community over isolation, hope over despair.
We invite you to look at it not just as a work of art, but as a work of community. Not just to remember, but to be renewed. To look back with gratitude, and forward with faith.
After the Making: What the Poppy Cascade Has Become
Since its unveiling, the Poppy Cascade at St Peter’s has been seen by hundreds of people. On Remembrance Sunday, on Remembrance Day itself, and in the quiet days in between. And the response has been extraordinary.
People have stood in silence. Some have wept. Many have taken photos to share with family, friends, and neighbours. Not just to show what they’ve seen, but to pass on what they’ve felt. The cascade has become a conversation. Between generations, between strangers, between memory and hope.
What began as an invitation to make poppies has become something much deeper. It has become an act of re-membering. Not just recalling the past, but re-stitching the fabric of community. As we gathered scraps and remnants to make something beautiful, we found ourselves woven together too.
In sermons on both Remembrance Sunday and Remembrance Day, we reflected on this. That remembrance is not only about looking back, but about being drawn together in the present. That peace is not only a prayer for the world, but a practice in our hands. That even small offerings, whether it is a few stitches, a shared cup of tea, or a quiet act of making can become signs of something much greater.
The cascade speaks of sacrifice, yes, but also of solidarity. Of beauty born from brokenness. Of hope that flows, quietly and persistently, through the hands of ordinary people.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed. Whether you made a single poppy or a hundred. Whether you came to see the cascade or shared it with someone who couldn’t. You have helped create something that is not only seen, but felt.
The cascade remains on display at St Peter’s until 22nd November but it will be out again next year. You are warmly invited to come and see it, or to come again. Bring a friend. Bring your story. Bring your longing for peace.
Because remembrance is not finished. It continues. In us, through us, among us.
And the light still shines.
Photos courtesy of Long Tse, Dorothy Dunleavy, Coral Tse, Karen Moores, Pam Smith