英国新闻听力 凡妮尔荣获邓普顿奖特别贡献奖（在线收听）

Good Morning. I was delighted to learn that Jean Vanier has been awarded this year’s Templeton prize for “exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension”. Now aged 86, he’s perhaps best known for starting what turned out to be the first L’Arche community in France in 1964 when he welcomed two disabled men into a small house he’d bought for this purpose. He’d visited a huge institution for those with learning disabilities and was shocked by what he saw. He wanted to create a place, where inmates were not only cared for, but loved as individuals.

Today, as a result of that vision, there are now 147 L’Arche communities in 35 countries, small family-type homes where people are welcomed for themselves and the intrinsic gifts they bring, not for their qualifications or abilities or for what they can “do”. Over the years I’ve visited several of these communities and what has always struck me is that in the spectrum of human gifts and weaknesses, it isn’t always obvious to spot who are the helpers and who are those being helped.

An unfortunate dispute is taking place at present in similar community at Botton Village in North Yorkshire where some 96 people with learning difficulties and their carers live and work alongside one another. For 60 years that has been the pattern of community life at Botton where co-workers share housing and food with the residents and are paid only expenses and not a salary, but following discussions with various authorities the trustees have come to the conclusion that changes must be made; the question is how this can be done without risking destroying the one thing that is most distinctive about Botton or indeed L’Arche, its common life? On Tuesday the courts granted an injunction temporarily delaying the bringing in of the new arrangements, and the trustees have said that they remain open to constructive dialogue, so hopefully a positive way forward can be found which meets modern standards without losing the vision of a community of love and respect.

Vanier makes a link between this sort of common life and a visit which Jesus makes to the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem early in his ministry according to the St John’s gospel. He writes “Jesus is in Jerusalem. He doesn’t go first to places of learning or power but to the local asylum where there was a multitude of people with disabilities, lame blind and paralyzed.” He goes on, “By entering in to the asylum Jesus is revealing the deep desire of God to bridge the gap that separates people, to bring together in unity and harmony people who are different; the foolish, the wise, the powerful and the powerless.”

Vanier points to his inclusive communities as sometimes healing not bodies but hearts. We need such communities.

早上好。很高兴获悉珍·凡妮尔荣获今年的邓普顿奖“肯定生命的精神维度特别贡献奖。”珍?凡妮尔今年86岁，因1964年在法国建立了首个方舟团体而闻名，他欢迎两名残障人士入住他为了该事业而购买的一座小房子。在此之前，他视察了为有学习障碍的人设立的一个大型机构，为他看到的景象感到震惊。他想要创造这样一个地方，居住者们不仅受到身体上的照料，而且作为个体能够感受到关爱。

现在，由于珍?凡妮尔那次探访，35个国家已有147个方舟团体，小型的家庭风格的房子，人们因他们本身和他们与生俱来的天赋而受到欢迎，而不会因他们的资格或能力或者他们的所作所为而受到评判。多年来，我参观过几个这样的团体，让我感到震撼的是，在人类天赋和弱点的范围内，观察谁是帮助者，谁是受帮助者并不总是很明显。

而现在，在北约克郡的Botton Village，一个类似的社区不幸地引发了争议。大约96名有学习障碍的人和他们的照料者一起在这里生活和工作。60年来，这里一直是这种社区生活模式，同事与居民分享住房和食物，只收取费用而没有薪资。但是与不同的机构进行讨论后，信托公司得出结论，必须做出改变。问题是，应该怎样做才不会毁坏Botton这种最具特色的模式，毁坏方舟团体的生活？周二，法庭发布了强制令，暂时推迟引入新的安排，信托机构表示，他们仍接受有建设性的对话，所以有望提出积极的方式满足现代化的标准，而不损失充满爱和尊敬的团体。

凡妮尔将这种共同生活和圣约翰的福音书中提到的耶稣早期视察耶路撒冷贝塞斯达池联系起来。他写道：“耶稣在耶路撒冷。他首先并不是去代表学习或能力的地方，而是去当地一个收容所，那里有许多眼盲或者瘫痪的残疾人士。”他继续写道：“进入这个收容所，耶稣披露了上帝想要填补分开人与人之间联系的鸿沟的渴望，希望为不同的，愚蠢的，聪明的，有能力的和无能力的人带来团结与和谐。”

凡妮尔称他建立的包容性的社区不仅仅治愈身体，而且治愈心灵。我们需要这样的社区。