Assalamu Alaikum

It must have come as something of a surprise to Cynthia & David Capey of Tonweya, when Cynthia was awarded the national Annemarie Schimmel award for excellence in Championing a Muslim Cause at the Grosvenor Hotel on Monday 27th March.

The London Mayor was the expected winner of this prestigious national award, but this time it was not a case of ‘Livingstone I presume’ and Cynthia, with her many years of working for inter-faith reconciliation, received the beautiful Astrolabe insignia.

Cynthia read Classics and Theology at Cambridge and taught RE in a number of High Schools before becoming a lecturer at Ipswich Civic College (now Suffolk College).

Cynthia and David’s efforts are not limited to Christian–Muslim relations; they include the Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Humanist, Jain, Jewish, Pagan, Sikh, Taoist and Zoroastrian faiths.

The multi-faith events are organised through: SIFRE (Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource –of which Cynthia was a founding member), EEFA (East of England Faiths Agency) and David’s work with the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy at Essex University.

The Capey's are Anglicans themselves and Cynthia is a Deanery Synod Representative for St. Michael and All Angels Church.

Prior to their arrival in Occold, they inhabited a large Victorian house in Ipswich which was formerly one of the major import houses for stamp collectors. Stamps continued to literally come out of the woodwork for some years.

It must take quite a mental effort to accommodate the susceptibilities of individuals holding at first sight incompatible ideas and values But Cynthia moves between the needs of destitute refugees one minute and the social acclimation of a trainee policeman the next, with apparent ease.

Incredibly, she has pursued her reconciliation through understanding agenda for something like fifty years. One doesn’t need to agree with every element of Cynthia’s programmes in order to recognise intellectual integrity and personal sincerity at work.

Congratulations!