As I was looking at the church calendar, I noticed that Wednesday, Jan. 18 (date of this newspaper’s publication) is the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The words from a UN environmental Sabbath program came to mind:
We join with the earth and with each other
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the earth and with each other
We join together as many and divine expressions of one loving mystery:
For the healing of the earth and the renewal of life.
This might seem like a long shot in the face of lack of co-operation we often see on the world stage but people are trying across the globe to come together and co-operate in many contexts, even religious.
Religion is often seen as the great divider, often expressed to me in such words as, “Haven’t most of the major wars been fought over religion?”
Well no, most have been fought for economic, political, power and control reasons.
It is true that 500 years ago, Christians (Catholics and Protestants) were slaughtering each other, just as Sunni and Shiite Muslims are doing now. Often times, it is a symptom of a much deeper problem than a religious one. Religion grows out of human spirituality. It is the way humans choose to express their spirituality. Spirituality is the common denominator. We all have a spiritual aspect, even the most adamant atheist, and in some, it is more awakened than in others. Our spirituality, rather than dividing us, has the potential to unite us, as we perceive the spiritual thread that runs through the various religious faces we present to society. As we begin this special week, it is my prayer that not only Christians be united, rather than be divided by petty dogmas, but all humanity, as the UN program expressed, “For healing of the earth and the renewal of all life.”
– The Rev. Simon Shenstone is pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Grand Forks