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About Anvil Trust

Workshop is an initiative of Anvil Trust, which is a registered charity (No:1010354) that was established on 20th March 1992. The Trust was brought into being after the Workshop programme had already been running some eight and a half years (since September 1983). Anvil Trust is shaped by the same vision and values that undergird Workshop, and provides a legal basis upon which Workshop can function.

There are currently seven Anvil Trust trustees, each of whom have been actively involved in the running of the Workshop course. They are:

  • Aglaia Barraclough
  • Isabel Ciudad Fontecha
  • Sarah Edwards
  • Tim Evans (Chair)
  • Christabel Fearon
  • Gareth Watts

Their responsibilities are not only to make sure that the legal requirements of the Trust are met, but also to play an important part in the decision making process of the programme.

The objectives of the Anvil Trust

To advance the Christian faith and the promotion of a Christian understanding of values, mainly but not exclusively by:

  • Providing teaching and learning opportunities
  • Producing teaching and learning resource materials
  • Promoting respect for different faiths and beliefs, including different Christian traditions

'The Anvil' poem by Noel Moules

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Anvil Poem

Watch The Anvil poem video

Poem plain text transcript
The forge is a workshop
in which the anvil is the centerpiece
A solid block of iron
which becomes a place of transfiguration

The anvil is the focus of energy,
explosive force and power,
but not violence.
It stands close to the furnace,
heat and melting,
moulding and shaping,
but not breaking

The anvil is the point of creativity,
where technique and cunning turn unyielding metal into art or implement.
An ability that must be learned;
craftsman and apprentice sharing skills,
miracles born out of sweat and time,
the sound of ringing steel
alive with joy

The anvil is a place of peace,
swords and spears
shaped into sickle and plough
essential character transformed
The smith is meekness in motion
stature and strength
under perfect control

The anvil speaks of true gentleness;
its ability to receive blows
rather than to strike them
and in so doing
to wear out many hammers.

© Noel Moules