The Sacred Thread Weaving Our Bonds of Affection

Abstract

In 2014 women from around our Anglican Communion gathered to explore our lives of prayer under the conference banner “Anglican Women at Prayer: Weaving Our Bonds of Affection.” This article is an adaptation of the plenary address for that conference. Using reflections from my own prayer life and the lives of women who have been research partners with me in the Pacific and in Africa, I seek to articulate the sacred thread expressed through our shared stories and prayers. Through this lens I explore, in turn, each of the three central threads of the conference theme: weaving, being bound together, and affection. These reflections seek to prompt and inspire other women to explore and share the sacred thread within their own lives of prayer. In doing so we will increase the richness with which we continue to interweave our loving connection to each other and to the different parts of this world that we call our home.