Last night at Marlborough Road a number of people were commissioned to the ministry of Anna Chaplain, including our own Peter Curtis. After we had heard the reading from Luke’s Gospel in which the baby Jesus is introduced to Anna in the Temple (Luke 2: 36-38), Debbie Thrower, Anna Chaplain founder and pioneer, spoke movingly about the origins and the purposes of this ministry, which includes helping older people reflect on their spiritual journey, offering them spiritual support and acting as an advocate for the needs of older people in church and in the wider community. And she reminded us of a fundamental truth which applies to all Christian efforts to help others in this world. In the words attributed to St Theresa of Avila:
Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.