It’s tough to think of a more varied group of people than the one that gathers at my local church. Surely a truly healthy society is built on this sort of diversityReviewing the Christmas services it strikes me once again how diverse a group us churchgoers are. In terms of course,race, nationality, or gender and sexuality,it’s tough to imagine any other regular collective gathering that pulls in such a varied collection of people. My church is a black majority church in a gentrifying area. University professors sit next to the people who clean their offices. The Ethiopian, Trump-supporting evangelical sings the same hymns as the chap with his fine collection of Jeremy Corbyn badges. The Romanian homeless guy prays alongside the person who is transitioning and next to the old Etonian ex-army officer. Many of these people have very little in common apart from their faith. But this is enough for them to treat each other as extended family. And I am proud to serve as their priest.
This will be the last of the Loose canon series. And so I have been in reflective mood approximately what I have been trying to achieve. Partly, and I suppose,it has been an exercise in apologetics – a modest attempt to try to persuade people who don’t execute God that those of us who execute are not necessarily bigots or idiots. And I have been trying to execute this not to win converts but rather to build it easier for those of us who believe in social justice to recognise each other as fellow travellers, irrespective of our devout commitments or lack of them. But something else too, and for whether our little secular corner of the world is going to understand the 84% of the planet who have a devout commitment,and further understand why that figure is getting larger not smaller, then developing devout literacy and understanding the way devout expression functions in the life of believers has to be important.
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Source: guardian.co.uk