Fifteen thousand, two hundred and ninety-two.

That’s how many small white flags carpet the lawn of First Christian Church of Decatur, almost all of them in 15 16-square-foot grids.

Monday, a light breeze blew under blue skies and sunshine, making the small white sentries flutter.

Each flag represents the life of a Georgian, cut short by COVID-19.

Rev. James Brewer-Calvert says the flags were planted by volunteers on Saturday, some of whom occasionally had to pause to wipe away tears.

“Fifteen thousand souls in Georgia have passed from COVID-19,” says Brewer Calvert, “so each flag, in effect, has a name, a life, a story. They remind us of our brothers and sisters we’ve lost.

We’ve all lost somebody. We’ve all lost somebody, and we’ve all been touched by this.”

“When you see them all out there, it just takes your breath away,” one woman, Rebecca, tells WSB.

The white flag display came in partnership with American Friends Service Committee. Dr. Brewer-Calvert said congregants from about 10 sister churches got together to push the flags into their grids over the weekend, a task that took 90 minutes before a dedication ceremony at which several clergy spoke. Signs on the periphery detail the grim fallout of the coronavirus pandemic for Georgians at home, at work, behind bars.

“And you know, the sad thing is that we’ve planted another 290 flags since Saturday afternoon, because another 290 have died. The number keeps growing, and our hearts are breaking. This is a tragedy,” says Dr. Brewer-Calvert.

The added flags form a small, circular cluster a few steps away from the grids.

“There’s 15,292 on the lawn right now and there’s half a million in our country,” he says. “There’s millions around the world. It’s an unknown number to us. God knows. God knows, but to us, it’s just overwhelming, this loss.”

Brewer-Calvert says, however, that grief is a gift of God because it helps us to remember those who have gone before us.

“It’s a positive experience that the Holy gives us to keep alive those that we’ve lost,” he says.

Rev. Brewer-Calvert says the flag display, which will be on the lawn through February 28, is a safely-distanced sanctuary of sorts. Clergy will be on the lawn daily throughout the week, from noon-12:30 and from 5:00-5:30 p.m., to pray with anyone who wants it.

“This is a prayer walk,” says Brewer-Calvert. “This is a site for people to come and to walk and to sit and to remember, to give thanks for lives loved and lost, and to commune.”

He says for many people, the Saturday event was a reunion of sorts--the first time they’d seen each other in person in a year, as church services have moved online during the coronavirus pandemic. One young couple who had joined a sister church met their pastor physically for the first time. The gathering brought people together in a unique, unanticipated way, bringing smiles in the midst of the grim reminder of the virus’s deadly toll.

While representing one lost life each, the flags in their square grids on First Christian’s lawn take up much less space than the 700 or so actual picnicking people who usually crowd the grass for Fourth of July fireworks in years past. He says the tiny white banners are a physical reminder of an ever-climbing statistic to which some people may become desensitized as the numbers run together.

“One of the speakers of the dedication called each square ‘a coffin,” Rev. Brewer-Calvert says. “I had not thought of them as ‘coffins.’ But if you look at it that way, it’s even more devastating.

“And yet, signs of deliverance, of gladness for the mercy of being present, being alive, and knowing that this is not the end.”

As the pastor spoke, a Decatur man came to visit the display, snapping pictures of the waving flags with his cell phone. His 95-year-old mother had died on Sunday, of coronavirus.

Cox Media Group