At the Fair

Last fall my church, All Saints Anglican, hosted a craft and vendor fair. When I asked if I could sell my book, Not of My Making, there, I received an enthusiastic yes. I feared a church fair was an unusual place to sell books and my book wouldn’t sell. I decided I needed a craft item to attract customers and boost sales. But what would go with a book on bullying in churches? As documented in Not of My Making, when faced with rejection and emotional abuse I turned to prayer and meditation so I chose to make flex wire rosaries and chaplets. Despite the pouring rain, I sold more books than rosaries and spoke to many people about the problem of abuse in churches.

Pleased with my success at All Saints Anglican’s fair, I am committed to doing one craft and vendor fair a month. To gain experience I have chosen small fairs as I develop my display and product line. In March I attended a craft and vendor fair in Middletown, Rhode Island, hosted by the local chapter of the American Cancer Society. My friend and editor, Hannah Goodman, was going and this was a chance for us to do an event together. Despite the poor turnout, I sold several books and chaplets making a small profit. Again I got to share my expertise about spiritual abuse with several people.

Encouraged I prepared for the art and craft fair at The Cathedral of Saint John in Providence, RI. It was a juried show and I was pleased to get in. There were several fine crafters there and I worried I couldn’t compete with my book, rosaries and button jewelry. Next to me was Bishop Geralyn Wolf who makes and sells brightly colored whimsical figures out of scrap wood. Down the steps was Pentastic Plus selling wooden pens. Across the hall was Leave it to Weaver selling hand painted silk and velvet garments, LynWorks selling handcrafted bowls and photographs and studio DDB selling stained glass art. I wanted to purchase something from each of them since I needed gifts for my daughter-in-law and husband but none of them took credit or debit cards. The cash I had I needed to make change for customers so I took their cards with the intention of making purchases after the fair.

At the start of the fair I gave each fellow vendor a bookmark and prayed that we would all be successful. It turned out the sunny day and Rhode Island School of Design student fair were bigger competitors. Despite this I was one of the few vendors to make a profit.

Since the traffic was slow I spent a lot of my time talking to Bishop Wolf. This was my first time speaking to a bishop. Growing up Catholic I only saw bishops from a distance at my confirmation and on television. Bishop Wolf rather than being remote and inaccessible was easy to talk to. When she was a parish priest in a challenging parish she started making figures out of scrap wood to relieve stress. A parishioner who made high end furniture supplied her with the needed wood. I was amazed to learn Bishop Wolf has no formal art training and aspired to be as creative as she is. Bishop Wolf only exhibits at two shows a year: St. John’s and The Foundry Arts Association.

Besides talking about her art, Bishop Wolf and I talked about church conflict. I felt validated when she said it was important for a bishop to intervene early in a conflict no matter how small the issue appears to be. She likes to get everyone involved to sit down and talk. She finds it takes approximately six sessions.

“I would have settled for one,” I told her. “No one in the bishop’s office would even meet with me once to hear my concerns.”

Bishop Wolf was empathetic to my situation. She looked over my book but to my disappointment did not buy one. However, I did sell to other people and made a small profit.