Dear All,
This week we are encouraged to pray for unity among all Christians. Each year the services for Unity Week are prepared by Christians in different countries. This year it is the turn of Christians in the Middle East. This is poignant with our awareness of so much conflict in several of the Middle Eastern countries & of the difficulties experienced currently by many Christians there.
The Trinity is, of course, both the model for unity – the wonderfully full & equal relationships between the three persons – but it is also the source of our unity. We have included a reflection on the Trinity to remind us where our desire for unity originates.
There is also a reflection from Brother James Koester. Its focus is the interconnectedness of ourselves & creation & the creator.
The ‘Celtic Blessing’ from ‘Light in our Darkness’ is our blessing this week – perhaps we could extend that blessing to all those suffering in the Middle East at this time.
With our love
If we see the Trinity as a circle – no beginning or ending, no top or bottom, God an existing and eternal relationship – Jesus can say: ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’ This is the relationship we are invited to join, so that we pray in God and not to God. Here we see God committed to the dance of an equal and unending relationship, willing to suffer rather than force us into relationship. We see the Father and the Holy Spirit in agony with Jesus on the Cross, so close is the relationship – in Greek icons you always see some representation of each person of the Trinity on the Cross. We are invited to be in this relationship, part of the dance, knowing the vulnerability and the joy of love. Instead of constantly searching for the way to God, whenever we pray we dwell in God, in the Living God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
From Living in Rhythm: Following Nature’s Rule.
From the very opening of the book of Genesis – when we see God at work, making the earth – the creation promises to offer us a direct link back to its Creator. By looking to the wonder of creation, we begin to fathom the mystery of our belonging to the God who made us, too. As people with the eyes of faith, we see in the yearly cycle of the seasons the transfiguring power of the Spirit, restoring all things in Christ who himself fills all things . . . . Restoration – the restoration of our balance with nature, as well as the restoration of the natural world itself – teaches us our own place as creatures, natural creatures, placed on this earth by a loving Creator.
Over the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate more and more just how fundamental our connection to the creation is to our wholeness as human beings. I believe that living in rhythm with nature, helps each of us to grow into that vibrant life the Gardener dreamed when we were created.
We need to get our hands dirty. We need to be physically in touch with the creation. We need to get reconnected to nature, in a place that isn’t just manicured lawns or city parks bordered by skyscrapers. We need to experience the good ache of using our bodies in fresh air. We need honest sweat.
I think we need this because, ultimately, it reminds us who we are, that fundamental identity defined as ‘part of God’s creation.’ The creation connects us with the Creator. It grounds us in the living rhythms of which we are a part. We remember not just that we have a body, but that we are a body – a working, interdependent, natural, physical miracle that God made. ‘For you yourself created my inmost parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will thank you because I am marvellously made…’ (Psalm 139:12).
We need to live in rhythm with nature because we are nature. We’re not over and above or outside of nature; we’re part of nature, we’re part of the whole ecosystem. When we live in rhythm with nature, we take our place as one part of this magnificent whole that God has made. Our own restoration is fundamentally linked with the preservation and restoration of the natural world we inhabit and of which we ourselves are a part.
As we strive to live in rhythm – as God intends us to live – we feel ourselves called into the woods, the desert wastes, beside the running waters, under the deep blue sky. We respond to the deep fellowship with nature that the Spirit urges, and which is a fundamental part of our humanity. We learn from the natural world the rhythms by which we can live richer, more human and humane lives. And when we begin to heed these rhythms, in the words of Father Congreve, then the Creation ‘shall become a living and personal word revealing to each of us the heart of God.’
Br. James Koester, SSJE
The story of the Magi visiting the Holy Family in Bethlehem is one very familiar to us. The Magi have sometimes been seen as a symbol of the world’s diversity – different religions and cultures – that comes to pay homage to the Christ-child. The story might therefore represent the unity of all created that God desires.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2022 has been prepared by the churches of the Middle East, the history of which was, and still is, characterised by conflict and strife, tainted with blood and darkened by injustice and oppression. The Christians of the Middle East offer these resources conscious that the world shares many of the travails and much of the difficulties that it experiences, and yearns for a light to lead the way to the Saviour who is the light that overcomes darkness.
Serving the Gospel today requires a commitment to the human being, especially the poorest, the weakest and those marginalised. It requires from the churches transparency and accountability in dealing with the world, and with each other. This means churches need to cooperate to provide relief to the afflicted, to welcome the displaced, to relieve the burdened, and to build a just and honest society. This is a call for churches to work together so that young people can build a good future according to God’s heart, a future in which all human beings can experience life, peace, justice, and love.