Women’s World Day of Prayer March 2014: The theme was “Streams in the Desert.” The Meditation on the theme was given by Veronica Whitty, a parishioner at Our Lady and St.Columba and member of Pax
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Streams in the desert. The desert. How many of us have experienced the desert in our own lives a time that feels arid, non-productive, stuck. It was just such an experience that Florence Nightingale had when her family refused for years to allow her to nurse. As a result she was often ill. Travel was her escape. Then she was never ill. She went to Egypt in 1850. It was there that God spoke to her again.
Her first experience of God`s voice was on her 17th birthday. She spent the next ten years clarifying God`s call. In Egypt God asked her if she could do good without desiring great things for herself. Her family finally relented in 1853 and allowed her to take up an unpaid position as Superintendent at a charitable nursing home in London.
Florence Nightingale is a good example of both ecumenism and inter-faith activity. One side of her family were Dissenters and the other Unitarians. She was raised an Anglican but ceased to be a church-goer by her early `30s although she remained a communicant. When in Rome she did a ten-day retreat based on the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola.
Later as Superintendent at the Home in London she challenged her committee over sectarianism. She wrote:
“My committee refused to take in Catholic patients- whereupon I wished them good morning unless I might take in Jews and their Rabbis to attend them. So now it is settled, and in print, that we are to take in all denominations, whatever and allow them to be visited by their respective priests and muftis.”
The women of Egypt have prepared our service today and it is rich in symbolism. We have the sand- coloured cloth representing the desert and bowls and jugs for the water: The Lord says: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, And streams on the dry ground.”
Christianity has played a part in Egyptian life from the time immediately following Christ`s death when the tongues of fire appeared in the upper room where the crowd heard the Galileans speak to them in their own language including those from “Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, Crete and
Arabia.”
The Egyptians took the Gospel teaching back to Egypt. When Christianity was made a legal religion by the
Emperor Constantine many Christians began to move into the desert for a life of solitude, stillness and silence. They became what we call today the Desert Mothers and Fathers and it is said the women outnumbered the men. Some were solitary, some lived in communities but the essentials of solitude, stillness and silence were the basic structures of their lives.
In the desert, women sought counsel from one another and men sought counsel from women and vice versa. They knew they needed each other. In the desert it became radically clear that the way was made by walking together.
The Desert Mothers offer us one example of what a dedicated life looks like. Their daily regimen (regime) included early morning prayer, silence, praying the psalms, manual labour and simple eating. They sought to live in a way that was simple enough that they would not confuse the trappings of their lives for life itself.
They lived their lives creatively. They practised discernment, sought guidance from their spiritual

companions, listened to their lives in order to live well and creatively. They made choices that they prayed about and acted upon.
We notice that these women found in the gospel the freedom to answer the call of God to be different and to be authentic. They went toward a new life. As they departed for the desert they were entering a great unknown, both in terms of landscape and in terms of their own souls. How might we, who live so many centuries later, follow this desert way as they did, seeking the inner freedom that allows us to walk in loving service?
And today, so many centuries later, Egypt is undergoing profound and demanding changes. The Christian population is now 12% and Islam was made the state religion only recently in 1980. After the Arab Spring of
2011 one elected government has come and gone and the new government has resigned. We wait and see.
There has been an increase in tension between Muslims and Christians. We pray for religious tolerance in
Egypt.
The literacy rate is 80% for males and 63% for females out of a population of over 80 millions. Adolescent girls in rural areas can be discouraged from completing school resulting in illiteracy, early marriage and some domestic abuse. Such women find themselves with no skills for anything else.
The Egyptian Church is trying to help. Many Church women- Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic- are volunteering their help in health-care, nutrition, childcare and family planning. Women are helping women.
However, it`s important to remember that women were admitted to the Egyptian National University in
1928 and received the vote in 1956. They became more visible in public life and in 1979 women were guaranteed seats in all Egypt`s elected assemblies. Women were to the fore during the Arab Spring and were attacked by the police for their activities especially young women such as Rasha Azabo, Mona Seif and
Nazly Hussain, a legal activist who provides legal support for those detained during the revolution, as well as running campaigns to collect bail money for those who cannot afford it.
More seriously, the rampant sexual attacks during the Tahrir Square protests highlight the failure of the government and all political parties to face up to the violence that women in Egypt experience on a daily basis in public spaces. Joe Stork,, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, says “These are serious crimes that are holding women back from participating fully in the public life of Egypt at a critical point in the country’s development.”
Some Islamic fundamentalists would like to severely restrict the role of women in public life. Now women have to take care when they are in public from sexual predators. It has become a serious problem and the police do not prosecute the perpetrators.
Finally, let us join with the Women of Egypt in their prayer: God our Father, we thank you for our oneness in
Christ and for the World Day of Prayer. With the Psalmist, we praise you, Lord, with all our being. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ our Lord who died for us and for the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Help us to proclaim your wonders through every thought, word and deed in Jesus` name. Amen.
Veronica Whitty