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Dear Friends,

November is here – the beginning of darker days, chilly weather and more rain! The very thought makes us want to snuggle deeper into the duvet and snooze until spring. Of course, this is exactly what some species do. Bees are especially vulnerable to low temperatures and so cluster together in a big ball inside their hives. The heat that they generate is amazing – cluster temperatures of 31C have been measured when the outside temperature has been minus 28C!

It all goes to show that we are better together. Ecclesiastes 4:11 says “If two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” The author of this Old Testament book obviously didn’t have a dog or cat! Of course, this sentiment goes much deeper, reminding us that no man or woman is an island. Whether we live alone or with others, we all need to be part of a community – which is one of the many gifts the church can provide.

Of course, being part of a community can be challenging at times. Recently I was privileged to listen to Rowan Williams speak at St Martin in the Fields on the theme of ‘Soul Friends’. I was especially struck by his point that a soul friend is often the person who says the things we least want to hear!  Dr Williams went on to speak of the church as needing to be a place of warm hospitality and truth telling. It is easy to focus on one at the expense of the other – most of us are better at the hospitality. But the gospel calls us to be those who worship ‘in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24).

Telling the truth is often costly – with our Lord Jesus Christ being the prime example. In recent times we might think of folk like Professor Jurgen Moltmann, who died this year at the age of 98. He became a prisoner of war during WWII because he refused to fight for the Nazi regime. He devoted his life to speaking out against the dangers of nationalism. As he put it; “The Church of Christ is present in all the people on earth and cannot become a national religion… She is not a tribal religion, nor a Western religion, nor a white religion, but the Church of all humanity.”

Historian Carlton Hayes echoed this sentiment in a book first published in 1960: “If anybody in Europe is asked now who or what he is, his response is almost certain to be: “I’m English,” or “I’m Irish,” or “I’m German” or “Italian” or “Russian” or some other national. If a medieval European had been asked the same question, he probably would have answered: “I’m a Christian.” At the moment we witness a deeply disturbing development of nationalism across the globe. As Christians, as a church, we have a duty to stand against it and to speak out against it, remembering the power of faith to unite and not divide. In the words of one of our best loved hyms:
In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
This month may we renew our efforts to building up this great fellowship, the church of God, through our commitment to telling the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and caring for each other – for only then can peace have a chance and the ills of our world be healed.

Your vicar and parish canine friend, Esther and Jessie  xx