The congregation of Central Presbyterian Church on Nov. 7 will get to see what member Char Rood has been working on for more than a year.

It’s 100 feet long and helps tell the story of a church founded in 1869.

It has been tentatively dubbed the Saints of Central Baptismal Scroll.

Char Rood (left) and the Rev. Charles Packard of Central Presbyterian Church show the scroll on which Rood embroidered the names of more than 1,500 people who have joined the church or been baptized there through the years. A Nov. 7 ceremony will mark the scroll’s completion.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

What it features are names, lots of them, probably more than 1,500. Rood has methodically embroidered them on a cotton cloth with satin backing.

The scroll is 14 inches wide and one-third the length of a football field.

The names are those who have joined the church or been baptized there throughout the decades. Those baptized have their names embroidered in silver, while names of confirmed members appear in gold.

The 83-year-old Rood began her work shortly after the church’s pastor, the Rev. Charles Packard, casually mentioned seeing such a scroll at another church had blessed him.

Other church members, including the pastor’s wife, said if anyone could duplicate such an effort, it would be Rood, who prefers Char to her full name of Charlotte.

Growing up in Michigan, Rood learned to sew at an early age. She knits and crochets, and had given some thought to buying an embroidery machine, which is different than a sewing machine.

“I thought, ‘What the heck, this is my chance,’ ” said Rood, who made the purchase and took lessons.

She then proceeded to embroider names in script, using old records other church members scoured.

“It would take me an hour to do seven names,” said Rood, who moved to Texas from Florida to be near family members and joined Central Presbyterian Church in 2008. “I worked on it sometimes 10 hours a day, sometimes an hour a day, depending on what else I had to do.”

Longtime members Les and Joyce Fisseler proved invaluable to the task. They relied upon a handful of books dating back to the 1800s to sort out those who had been baptized but not confirmed and those who had formally joined the church.

They also would decipher the old handwritten names and verify spellings.

In some denominations, babies are baptized and later confirmed when they make a mature statement of faith. Some of those baptized at Central Presbyterian Church were not confirmed there because their families moved.

This situation was often true for military families stationed at James Connally Air Force Base between 1942 and 1968.

Central Presbyterian Church has relocated several times since its founding in 1869. It now is located at 9191 Woodway Drive and typically has 100 people attend its Sunday services.

The congregation will hold a memorial service on Nov. 7, which is the Sunday after All Saints’ Day, to celebrate completion of the membership and baptismal scroll.

Packard said plans call for the scroll to be unrolled from the front of the church to the back, with those in the congregation clasping it and praying.

A similar ceremony likely will take place each Sunday someone joins the church or is baptized. Rood said once or twice a year, she will embroider new names on the scroll.

Packard said the church will prepare a permanent home for the scroll near the baptismal font or bowl.

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