HOME
  ABOUT US
  SERVICES
  LIFE EVENTS
  INFORMATION
  NEWS AND EVENTS
  LINKS
  PHOTO GALLERY
  CONTACT US
 
 

 

 Priest's Page...


'Maureen's Musings'



March 2014

There was a point, yesterday evening, when I seriously thought I might not be able to get home... I was on my way back from General Synod, when the weather conspired to make it very difficult. There were trees blown down, power outages and flooding getting ever worse, and with winds hitting 100 miles an hour and over, I cannot blame Virgin for deciding not to run any trains! But when one is standing on Euston Station, conscious of two dogs waiting hopefully and my house sitter expecting to get back to his home, rational thought begins to disappear and panic sets in!

As Archbishop Justin had commented a few hours earlier, "Perfect love casts out fear. We know it although we don't often apply it. We mostly know that perfect fear casts out love."

Now he was speaking about the church and the way in which we tear each other apart all too often, because we seek to define other people - who maybe hold a different opinion or interpretation of scripture to ourselves - as our enemy, rather than focusing on the much greater part of what we agree. He also spoke of the imperative on the church to model a different way of dealing with our differences; that there can be such a thing as 'good disagreement'. We can learn to listen - really listen - to those who hold passionately a point of view that is different. This won't necessarily lead to tidy, neat solutions ... In fact it will be untidy, messy and at times incoherent - just like human beings. But we are not created to all think the same, share the same beliefs, like the same things.... God seems to value our diversity, and challenges us to find a way of living with that tension in a way that is creative and life affirming. Sadly often our way of coping is to try and stifle all opposition rather than celebrating and glorying in our differences.

Archbishop Justin also said the following. "We have to find a way forward that is one of holiness and obedience to the call of God and enables us to fulfil our purposes. This cannot be done through fear. How we go forward matters deeply, as does where we arrive."

Well I arrived back in Pattingham - in fact even earlier than had been planned! So whether it is trying to steer a huge and unwieldy institution like the Church, or just getting home when the storm is raging, we can work together to overcome fear and work practically for the common good...
Thanks be to God!

Maureen