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	Flowers and family mementos decorate one of the crosses that stood in the lawn at St. David's, Topeka. The parish had been placing a cross for every American service member killed in Iraq, but after 1,300 crosses they ran out of room and in July retired the project. Photo by Melodie Woerman

Topeka church retires its wartime garden of crosses

By Melodie Woerman

Editor, The Harvest

St. David’s has run out of room. For more than two years, led by its youth group, the Topeka parish has been placing a handmade wooden cross in the church lawn for every American service member killed in Iraq. But by July, with 1,300 already in the ground and some 300 still needing to be placed, there just wasn’t any more room.

The parish retired the “Garden of Crosses” during a ceremony July 10, complete with a military firing squad and the playing of “Taps.”

St. David’s rector, the Rev. Don Davidson, said the project has been a good one for the parish, although it generated interest from groups both opposing the war and supporting the government’s efforts.

“This never was meant to be any kind of a political statement,” he said. Rather, the intent always has been one of memorial. “The message was nothing more than to remember those who had died. It wasn’t glorifying what they did or not glorifying it. It was just to remember them,” he said.

That duty took on a personal note for Davidson, who made the cross for Staff Sgt. Clinton Wisdom, a member of the Kansas Army National Guard who was killed last November. Serving himself as a chaplain with the National Guard, Davidson had been called on to help notify Wisdom’s wife and parents of his death. Davidson said making Wisdom’s cross was “an honor.”

The crosses removed from the ground have been kept, Davidson said, and the parish would like to give them to family members. All they have to do is contact the parish office, he said, by calling 785-272-5144.

A temporary memorial, with a cross for every 100 deaths, will be in place soon, and plans are underway for a more permanent way to recall the deaths in the Iraq war and the parish’s remembrance of them through its cross project. Davidson said, “I hope it will be at a time of memorial and thanksgiving that the war is over.”