Building Hope and Taking Action

Saturday 31st August 2024

After a summer of unrest, Bishop John has shared a pastoral letter to guide our thoughts as we have an opportunity to build hope in our Diocese.

Bishop John begins his letter to explain that he wanted to touch on a number of different, but linked, matters.

In his letter, Bishop John presents three main themes for his 26th pastoral letter, in which he invites us to reflect on the ways in which we can help build hope and take action within our own parishes and wider communities.

Cohesive Communities

Bishop John begins his pastoral letter by reflecting on the unrest and turbulence we have witnessed in cities across the UK.

He says: “This summer has seen considerable unrest in our cities, with the riots that followed the appalling murder of three children and the wounding of others. It has been clearly established that the riots were promoted by racism, anti-Islamic prejudice and what the Prime Minister referred to as “Far right thuggery”. There was much misinformation and “fake news” promoted by the misuse of social media.”

He goes on to offer ways in which we as individuals and parishes can be involved in building and strengthening a sense of community, referencing our diocese’s long history of welcoming diverse communities.

Bishop John asks that: “We must not take that diversity for granted but continue to build and strengthen a sense of community. I urge everyone to take any opportunity to befriend your neighbours, work colleagues and the people with whom you can build any association. We can learn and benefit from the different cultures and bring advantage to our lives together. Growing and promoting that understanding and friendship will strengthen our communities and reject any sense of racial or religious prejudice.”

Season of Creation

The second theme is an invitation to use the Season of Creation to take actions that will help make a significant impact on the world around us.

Bishop John explains: “The Season of Creation presents opportunity to promote our understanding of the complexity of Nature and the environment and to show, as Pope Francis says, how “each and every one of us has our part to play”. More recently in Laudate Deum, Pope Francis acknowledges that personal, family and community habits are contributing and helping to bring about large processes of transformation. This is something to be celebrated as we see action across our Diocese. But we need to do more.”

This year’s theme for the Season of Creation is “To Hope and Act” and reflects our need to respond with urgency. Bishop John takes this opportunity to praise the action already taken across the diocese and in our schools.

He says: “We could do well to learn from the enthusiasm to be found particularly in our schools where our children are so enthusiastic about learning about nature and creating spaces in their grounds to care for creation. This complements the wider diocesan work with schools to install solar panels to reduce energy consumption across school buildings and in some of our parishes.”

He ends this theme with the challenge to do more and continue on our journey of action.

Synod

The final theme, but closely connected to both our community building and our care for our environment, is our diocesan synod.

Bishop John reminds us that we are moving into the next stage of the process: the exploration stage. You can read more about this stage here.

Bishop John shares his hope that: “we all engage in this final period, both in the attendance of parish meetings and in our prayer. That combination, of prayer and action, will guide us to the important decisions that need to be made.”

Read Bishop John’s pastoral letter in full by clicking here.

You can also listen along by clicking here.