On Friday 7th March, some of the CASAI (Church Action on Sexual Abuse Issues) family came together to share in both the World Day of Prayer and International Women’s Day.
The CASAI office is based in Warrington, Cheshire. We are one of several ‘hubs’ in the North West that our Survivor family can come to and have space to laugh, cry, sing, pray, share, be still, be safe, be loud, be quiet, be heard, be supported, be healed, be fed, be ourselves, be someone else…..just be.
On Friday we prayed, sang, laughed, expressed gratitude, uplifted each other, ate pizza and cake and made our own flower garlands. We heard some life wisdom from the Maori women of the Cook Islands and shared their traditional greeting.
We tried our hands at Kintsugi which is a Japanese art that repairs broken pottery with gold, rendering a new piece that is more exquisite than it was before the break. We did it in the context of our bowl representing ourselves and God’s love being the glue and paint which heals our brokenness.
We checked in with other women around the country for a word or two of wisdom, and shared daffodils amongst our CASAI family and to women in the wider office block where we are based.
It was great afternoon, but we know there is a serious side to International Women’s Day because sadly a lot of women across the world are killed, abused, oppressed and marginalised for being born a woman.
The words of the song “I am woman ” written by Helen Reddy in the 60s still have relevance today.
We pray to God for all the women we know who are still suffering ….for all the women who have no hope….
for all the women who died for our freedom and all the women we know and love ❤️
Amen
