The Bishop of Edinburgh, The Rt Revd Dr John Armes, was honoured to help serve food to over 100 attendees on Tuesday evening at the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society and Hibernian Community Foundation’s ‘Pitch to Plate’ Multicultural Meal.
Bishop John said: “On offer was food to sustain the body, but also food for thought. It was a joy for me to meet (over the serving counter) and to talk with so many interesting people from a diverse range of Edinburgh’s communities.”
Many of the guests attended in a spirit of community solidarity and interfaith understanding; some were New Scots. Some savoured what would, unfortunately, be their only meal that day.
“Over Christmas and Epiphany we have reflected that at the heart of the Incarnation is relationship, to God and to one another,” Bishop John said. “Nowhere is this relationship more powerfully expressed than in ‘sharing a crust’ with others (as Dorothy Day once put it). Such sharing is a God-given privilege. It is a profound joy that has the power to transform us.
“I admire the work SABS has undertaken here, and see it as yet another way Scotland’s Shia Muslim Community and those of the Christian faith are in friendship, and share the ideal of serving God by serving others.
“I hope that such service may strengthen our voices in the public arena as we make ourselves part of the political process to build a world in which no one is hungry or excluded.
“Thank you to the General Secretary of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society, Azhar Hussnain, for the kind invitation. I am sure that it will bear fruit in new partnerships as we work together for the common good.”
