House of Holy Women

The members of the Kikuyu people in Kenya have a very nice tradition, that we implemented in a new form in Austria during WIHW 2020. Only great-grand mothers are allowed to pray for the family under holy trees. And they are called e "Holy women" and are very honored in the village. In Lienz / Austria we invited old women in a house for elderly people to pray for the children and other problems from the region.
We started with two afternoons about how people an Kenia live and showed films about it. More than 50 inhabitants were very interested in a totaly other kind of culture and how we "modern western civilization" can learn from it. At the end we showed the nice video about the "Lords prayer" from children in Tanzania https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEx0jY5emc From now on, everybody in the region can come to the house and post what he askes to pray about.
During a catholic ceremony I was allowed to talk about the project and on an evening meeting we invited some of the women to talk about their experience. They told us, how happy they are, to be asked for prayer. It gives their life a new meening and aim. So they forget about bad times with an old body, for they experience the inner connection to other people more than before. They pray as an example for children who lost a parent, for peace in the world, for save journeys and good workplaces, for the good future of young people and many more important aims. They meet in a chapel to pray every day and do it in their rooms. To remind them on the special prayer, they get a card to put on the table. As a little thank for this very important present to the region and the world, we will invite the "Holy Women" to visit the "Bell for peace and friendship" on top of a mountain with stones from all over the world, as soon as the snow is gone. We told our catholic bishop about the project and the WIHW to and he liked it. The project was mentioned in some media and we will continue to write about it in more.


Images for this event

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Gebetswand
Gebetswand