Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 9th October 2022

Dear Friends,

I have been thinking about unity and how it doesn’t mean uniformity, about unison which doesn’t mean everyone sings at the same pitch, and how when humans come together their unity can be positive and dynamic. This leads me to think that a rich unity surely needs to include a rich diversity. Otherwise it will be a sort of flat conformity. However that sort of vision is hugely risky and only a lot of love, understanding and patience can keep it going!

It seems to me that the better we know one another within a loving group, the stronger each individual and the group both become. It’s only when as individuals we have experienced something along these lines that we really know how to be supportive of one another. No one is perfect, but we can’t help or support one another unless we have some idea of the others’ vulnerabilities and strengths, and are willing under a loving umbrella to make an effort to understand those who seem to think or act differently from ourselves. It seems to me that this is what lies behind true Friendship, as well as behind any good cause which can only flourish if its supporters work together. At times this can be hard, especially when challenges arise.

All this has been known and understood at least since the days of the Hebrew Bible. ‘How good and how pleasant it is to live together as brothers in unity!’ (Psalm 133 v 1) surely suggests they knew what the opposite was like! Which reminds me, that same holy writ also had much to say about divine Light. For example, a modern translation gives Psalm 36 v 9 the following interpretation when addressing the divine, ‘with you is the fountain of life, and by your light we are enlightened’.

In Friendship

Caroline Pybus, guest contributor on behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (Bob Harwood, David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Nancy Wall)