Message

The monthly message from one of the clergy that is published in Outlook

Dear friends

It is the season of Lent again, a 40 day period of preparation for Easter and a time for reconsidering our lives in the light of the story of Jesus' death. God chooses to die rather than walk away from a life built on love, acceptance and welcome, and honest journeying with strength, weakness, wounds and moments of celebration.

It's a radical story. Some try to write a kind of theological equation to explain it comprehensively and I personally find too many of those explanations too certain, too defined, too neat and too focussed on something God is doing rather than something we all get to take part in. God enters the world, brings relationship and justice and restoration back to the centre of life's meaning and purpose and dies because that threatens the established seats of power and domination.

It's worth considering how our lives embody the love we hope to receive ourselves, the gentle and healing forgiveness and compassion we sometimes need and the willingness to take a long hard look at the way we have organised ourselves in terms of power, domination, money and possessions and relationship with others. Whatever we feel to be true about God, these are still good areas of reflection.

So take some time, if you will, in these next few weeks. Make some time to consider your own life and, if it helps, use Matthew chapters 5-7 as a framework for your reflection. This is not a religious text so much as a pattern of values and a way of life. Mahatma Ghandi, amongst others, was enormously inspired by these chapters.

I will be away on sabbatical over Easter. I am spending six weeks walking 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route across the north of Spain. Whatever form your journey takes and wherever it takes you, give some time again to the foundations of your life. This is never time wasted.

Regards,

Rory.

I have had a request to keep the following message from Rory on the website because several people have found it both profound and helpful - Webmaster.

Dear friends,

It is a strange thing living in a country that has been at war since early in 2003 and it seems as if it will be for some time to come.

When we fight, we do so for what we believe to be right and good, for ourselves, for others and usually as a last resort. People on different sides of the same conflict are equally convinced that their reasons for fighting are legitimate and even praiseworthy.

Violence destroys life, whatever form it takes. People suffer and the lasting legacy of armed conflict takes years and decades to be erased from the landscape, but it seems never to leave the hearts and lives of those caught up in it as it happens. It has been horrible living with the images and stories of the suffering in Iraq, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan. And closer to home in the recent past, in Northern Ireland and in my homeland, South Africa.

Why mention these places specifically? Because a common thread runs through them all. All this violence is committed in the name of God. The problem is that in many cases both sides think that God is on their side. That there is some divine sanction that makes fighting right. Religion and faith are the cornerstones of these conflicts. Well, God simply has no favourites. The sooner the world realises that the better.

The song that the angels sang to the shepherds that first Christmas was one of peace and goodwill amongst all people. God arrived into humankind with a message of reconciliation, of healing and friendship. This is God's deepest desire. Anyone who says that they act violently on behalf of God must be measured against this. Human history tells us how wrong they can be.

The world we live in needs peacemakers. Not politicians and diplomats who negotiate tolerance, but those who help us find each other, respect each other, give life to each other. Jesus tells us quite clearly that within the Christian faith, we are these people. We cannot ignore this as we celebrate our way through the Christmas season. Whatever each of us believes to be true about God, the challenge remains the same. Are we up for it?

Take care.

Rory