On June 17th, Carina, Wafaa and I attended the opening night of an exhibition called “Amen – A Prayer for the World” at the Museum of Modern Art on the Cairo Opera House grounds. The exhibition was sponsored by CARAVAN, which began in Cairo in 2009 and whose mission statement is: Building bridges through the Arts between the creeds and cultures of the East and West. After a simple buffet of finger food and drinks followed by the official opening with speeches in English and Arabic, including the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ali Gomaa, we were invited to view the fiberglass sculptures. The sculptures were of 3 different prayer positions, standing, kneeling and sitting, each painted and decorated by one of the 30 Egyptian Moslem and Christian artists who participated. From Cairo the Exhibition travelled to the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. (August 30 – October 6) and will then go to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York (October 12 – November 23). The exhibit in the U.S. will have an additional 18 sculptures by artists from the U.S. including several Jewish artists.

Sr. Darlene De Mong, NDS