Thought for the week from the Rev David Jones (we 26th February 2012)

The marginalization of the Christian faith is often in the headlines.

Objections to the wearing of crosses in the workplace to the banning of Christmas on the High Street are examples of how attitudes have hardened in recent years.

Last week a judgment in the high court making it illegal for prayers to be offered at council meetings brought the whole question of faith and its place in society to an entirely new level.

The ruling, backed by the National Secular society will have far reaching implications that could see Christianity removed from all aspects of public life.

This may well be the intention of those who brought the action, but whatever its rights and wrongs it reflects an emerging aggressive secularism which seems intolerant of all aspect of belief in our society whose history, after all, is firmly grounded in the Christian faith.

Lent which begins today leads us to the cross where the hopes of grieving disciples lay in ruins. Here, however we see the fullness of God’s forgiving love reaching out even to those who hounded Jesus to death.

We who seek to serve him today must follow this example of suffering love and even more so when we meet with indifference and even rejection.

Lent, of course, leads on to the joy of resurrection and the commission to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

In humility and with a passion to serve our communities the gifts of prayer and chaplaincies are offered as we who are called to serve seek always to be channels of peace and support in the communities where God has called us to be.

Rev. David Jones

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