Nurturing hope in dark times

Canon Anthony Ball

It is with sadness that we wish Canon Anthony Ball a fond farewell as he steps down as an Embrace Trustee, and one time Chair.

We want to record our heartfelt thanks to Anthony for nine dedicated years of service, and for his unstintingly generous gift of time, effort and wisdom to Embrace, and to our partners.

Here Anthony shares with us some final thoughts on the importance of Embrace’s transforming work, the blessings of giving and receiving, and the sustaining hope which is fostered by standing in solidarity with our Christian sisters and brothers in the Middle East.

I’m not one to challenge scripture – although freely admit to being challenged by it and finding it challenging. I found myself wondering recently whether there is a tension between the biblical verse “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) and the well-known prayer attributed to St Francis that includes the line “For it is in giving that we receive”. I concluded not, although the debate in my mind was reignited when considering this ‘valedictory’ blog as I step away from being a Trustee of Embrace the Middle East. The charity has been a big part of my life for the last 10 years, most intensely since becoming Chair of Trustees in 2016.

I can remember as if it were yesterday the call from (now Canon) Daniel Burton that came out of the blue, flagging a trustee vacancy at Embrace. I’d first come across the charity, then called BibleLands, at a conference they’d organised at Lambeth Palace in 2008. I was on the Archbishop’s staff at the time and Rowan Williams addressed the conference – entitled “The Christian Presence” – which sought to examine and reflect on the conditions in which Christian communities in the Middle East were living and how Christians in the UK could create a positive difference to the situations then current. At Christmas ten years later I had a part in organising a remarkable service at Westminster Abbey – “Celebrating the Contribution of Christians in the Middle East” – in which Embrace collaborated and which was addressed by HRH The Prince of Wales, amongst others. Anyone familiar with Embrace’s current plan, Hope in Action, will know that sustaining the (declining) presence of Christians serving the needs of the vulnerable in Middle Eastern societies remains central to our vision.

Daniel spoke at that conference in 2008, as the Chair of the charity’s trustees. He’d stepped down from the role by the time of that call in 2012, and the previous year I’d moved on from Lambeth Palace to parish ministry in Sussex. I’d promised myself to focus on my role as an incumbent for at least a year and I was just beginning to wonder whether the Church of England had any use for my Middle East experience. Having left Damascus to go and work in Lambeth Palace, the worsening Syrian conflict weighed heavy on my mind. Here was an opportunity for me to offer that passion not to the CofE, but to an ecumenical charity. The interviewing panel must have sensed that I could meet a need. Looking back, it’s difficult to untangle how much of my “offer” (giving) was tied up with my own need to feel I was doing something. Whatever the answer, the truth is that my life has been immeasurably enriched by what I have encountered over these years. I’ve had my eyes, and heart, opened to the people of the region in ways that will be familiar to those of you who read (and, through giving or prayer, share in) the stories of lives transformed through the work of Embrace’s partners.

Ten years ago, the Syrian civil war -and the consequent refugee crisis - was just beginning; the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi was elected President of Egypt with (unfulfilled) promises of greater religious freedom; and there was a major military confrontation between Hamas and Israel only quieted by heavy involvement from President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. Those were days mixed with hope and horror. At the time Embrace wasn’t working in Syria or Iraq. It is now and, as I look across the region, though some of the circumstances and places have changed that same potent mixture exists. As a fellow trustee of Embrace said about the situation in Ukraine recently: “I’m hopeful, but not optimistic”.

Hope is a foundational feature of the Christian faith. Over the years, as I’ve come face-to-face with some of the desperate situations in which many of Embrace’s partners work – to which these blogs, our magazine and other communications bear witness – that offer of hope, expressed in sharing the love and compassion of Christ, is a thread that runs through it all. What a gift!

And what an incredible return. Often when I’ve travelled, or prepared for a Board or Committee meeting, there have been other demands on my time that (I confess) have sometimes felt more important or pressing. But, each time I’ve met one of our partners or the beneficiaries of their work (and our grants) – whether in person, virtually or in a staff report – that has put it all into perspective. Seeing what it means to members of a tiny and beleaguered Christian community in Gaza that I’ve come to visit – leave aside the grants and projects, just that I’ve come to visit – is, simply, the blessing referred to in Acts.

Those acts of solidarity, the physical presence, most frequently of Embrace’s staff but also supporters and trustees, is what I’ve heard people from the region time and again say marks out our charity. Because, they say, it is accompanied by a real sense of shared endeavour and partnership; because Embrace takes the time to try and understand, humbly listening to the local voice; and because we have demonstrated long-term commitment. Yes, that in-person act of solidarity costs money, and may not always seem to be the most economically efficient way to determine grant distribution, yet seeing the result makes me wonder who is doing the giving and who the receiving. That was how I felt when I discovered that, during the pandemic, when travel wasn’t possible and our staff were working from home, times of communal prayer had not only continued but that partners were participating too. Somehow they all just knew that this was a natural step in the relationships. It helped nurture hope in dark times.

So, as I reflect back I see remarkable constancy. The name may change, strategic plans are formed and implemented, political, economic and social storms rage, what we do and how it is done adapts, people come and go, but relationships endure and at the core Embrace remains the same: sustaining Christian communities in the Middle East that transform lives in the love of Christ. As I’ve given time, talent or treasure to that endeavour what I’ve received back, in unexpected ways, is life in “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” (Luke 6.38). I pray that for you, in gratitude for all those lives with which mine has mingled over these past 10 years.