In 2019 SAW released a publication. The publication was the outcome of many months of self reflection and careful consideration, within it’s pages we sought to explore and explain what SAW is, what it has been, and what it aims to be as an organisation. There are several essays within it that explore different aspects of our thinking and practise- here is one of them.
To confer dignity with abandon
Receives the stranger to change their status to guest
Such reciprocal relationships as these
Signify a splendid stature – oh such grandeur.
As we carry ourselves in an attitude of unfazed affection
Making room for the stranger to enter in,
A way of being, of serving with motives that are clean,
To embrace another and not to absorb or preen,
Not the changer but the maker of change enabled space:
Give yourself and let the welcomed guest simply be embraced.
Yet the Xenia of Ancient Greece misses grace and gratitude,
merely gratifying duty in grandiose servitude.
And yet we, the befriended strangers of God,
hosted by the most high; the table invitee squad,
From bond slave fettered in shackle irons
To the reclaimed recovering redeemed
‘Zachaes’, ‘Mary’ – we’re called by name.
This house-mason home-maker, bread-breaker, feast-staker, tale-taker, wonder-waker.
Excerpt from spoken word piece Hostess with the Mostess by Lydia Hiorns
