麻豆社

From Rev Ruth Scott, Anglican Vicar in Richmond:

Anafora is a Coptic Orthodox community in reclaimed desert between Cairo and Alexandria. I鈥檝e been running workshops there for the last four years. Every morning the resident community of between 50 and 100 men and women meet together. The meeting closes with the person who received the cross the day before, choosing someone else in the community who has inspired them, and saying why they have picked that particular person. It鈥檚 a great honour to be given the cross and wear it for a day. That commitment to love and affirm others is central to Anafora鈥檚 practice. The community was set up by His Grace, Bishop Thomas, and hospitality is central to it. His commitment is to welcome all-comers and to empower the most vulnerable people in his care. Anafora provides education, work opportunities, safety from harassment, respite and rehabilitation for those who are disabled or the victims of abuse, as well as space to reflect on faith. The reason all the women of the community were able to attend the workshop I was leading was because Bishop Thomas closed Anafora to the hundreds of guests who usually come there, cleared his diary and, with a somewhat surprised group of the men, took on the women鈥檚 work for the duration, particularly the cooking and cleaning. He turned out three meals a day for almost 100 people. This act of love and commitment to their well-being astounded the women and played an important part in the healing they experienced that week and extended to me: I was touched beyond words when they gave me the special community cross to bring home. When I look at it I鈥檓 reminded of all the men and women whose hands over the years have held it and, in being affirmed, have gone on to affirm others. It鈥檚 easy to pay lip service to faith rather than live it out in practice, to knock people down rather than build them up, so my cross and the unconditional love +Thomas fleshes out in his service to others stands as both a challenge and a heart-warming reminder of the difference an affirming, generous spirit can make in our wounded world.