Thought For The Week

CREATING COMMUNITIES OF WHOLENESS WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTRE

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26th February

MOTHERING SUNDAY

Mothering Sunday started off as a day of thanksgiving for our mother church when people would travel to their local Cathedral [the mother church of the diocese] to give thanks for all the church did for them, praying, worshipping, providing healthcare, education and support when times were rough.

Over the years Mothering Sunday [or Mothers Day] has developed into a day of thanksgiving for our mothers and to all who have been mothers to us. They give so much to so many of us. And Mothering Sunday is one day on which we can give something back, a small gift of flowers in church on the day, a card, a cup of tea, a Sunday lunch... they are small practical expressions of a great truth, our thanks to those who care for us.

Who has been a mother to you and how are you going to say thank you this year?

12th February

DO WE WANT A SECULAR COUNTRY OR A PLURALIST ONE?

For years I've been assuming that those who say that we now live in a post-Christian and therefore secular country really meant 'pluralist'. It is a statement of the obvious that this is now a post-Christian country, although with strong Judeo-Christian resonances. But do we really want to deny the role of religion and of faith in our communities? Not all of us, indeed very few of us, are militant atheists.

Yet the responses to Archbishop Rowan's comments about Sharia law make me wonder. Are we so afraid of religion that we want to write it out of the script? If we are going to exclude religion from our law then we're not just talking of the special exemptions but also of the Christian heritage that is the foundation of so many of our laws. And what of schools, and not just faith schools? Across the nation schools worship together and teach RE and are required by law to do so. Do we want to be truly 'secular' and end of all of that? Such a move, such an exclusion of religion and culture, would be the ultimate dumbing down.

We don't need to be afraid of religion, and I believe that much of the antagonism springs from fear. Instead we need to understand it. The extremes of Sharia law are barbaric, but so can be the extremes of every creed and ideology, including Christianity. Does that mean that we throw the whole lot out? Some might give a resounding 'yes' but are they willing to live with the consequential cultural desert? To celebrate the diversity of creed and culture, education and law, to allow the quirks and idiosyncrasies, and to mourn the conflicts; such is the path of a pluralist society; and it was of this, I believe that +Rowan was speaking.

5th February

ARE YOU A GUS OR A TOM?

Or to put it another way, this Lent are you going to Give Up Something [GUS] or Take On More [TOM]?. Both can be good things to do. We've kind of forgotton about the benefits of abstaining, of giving things up. It can help to imporve our diet [and for most of us that's a good thing in its own right]. But Lent is far more than an excuse to diet.

As Christians we give things up to create space to take on more, and particularly to create space for God. Space to listen to God, through prayer and through reading the Bible, space to talk to God, space to think about what God is calling us to do. In our overful lives space for God can all to easily get crowded out, even in church, I was shocked when I realised how much time I'd spent on notices in our service on Sunday. So perhaps this Lent we should aim to be both GUS and TOM, aim to give up something so that we can take on more. For the record, I'm going to at least try to give up what my children call unhealthy snacks and drinks and take up praying at night, reading the Beattitudes, and having another go at reading Bonhoeffer's 'Cost of Discipleship' - all of which means that I'll also have to give up working late and start getting some more sleep. Two years ago when I tried something like this it worked OK. Last year was a complete disaster and I give up within a week. We'll see how 2008 goes - enjoy the opportunity to hassle me!