{"id":873,"date":"2020-06-11T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/chaplaincy\/?p=873"},"modified":"2020-06-11T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T14:54:11","slug":"the-rainbow-people-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/2020\/06\/11\/the-rainbow-people-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The rainbow people of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You will find here the reading and reflection from today\u2019s communion service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, here\u2019s a link to the video of Brother Roger<\/a> I mentioned, and another lovely video <\/a>of him talking about the vocation of listening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s a 10 minute video<\/a> made by the brothers about Taiz\u00e9 (and there are lots of other ones to find!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In this reading from John\u2019s gospel we hear Jesus praying with the disciples on the night before he died:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in\nme because of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they\nbe in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the\nworld will believe that you sent me. I gave them the same glory you gave me, so\nthat they may be one, just as you and I are one: I in them and you in me, so\nthat they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent\nme and that you love them as you love me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Thirteen years ago I had the chance to go for a week to a little village in Burgundy in France called Taiz\u00e9. Nestling alongside the village on the side of the hill is an amazing place – a big area of tents and low buildings including a huge church, all overflowing with people, mostly teenagers or in their twenties, from many different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year – each normal year- thousands of young people come\nto Taiz\u00e9 each week during the summer from all over Europe and around the world.\nThey join together for prayers in the church three times a day, singing the\nsongs which we might know in many different languages, or in Latin, a language\nfor all. They share together in bible studies and discussions in groups – often\nwith lots of translation – most of my group were German and I don\u2019t speak a\nword. And the same groups help prepare and serve the very simple meals, which\nis a wonderful bonding thing to do – we became good friends despite the\nlanguage barrier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this came about through the vision of a man called Brother\nRoger. Roger came from Switzerland to Taiz\u00e9 in 1940 with a dream of beginning a\ncommunity. During the war he helped to shelter Jewish refugees for some time,\nand then after the war he returned to Taiz\u00e9 with three others to begin his \u2018parable\nof community\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He felt very strongly that after such a devastating conflict\nChristians should be showing how reconciliation is possible, so the brothers come\nfrom different churches, protestant and catholic. He wanted to create a\ncommunity of those \u2018who would seek to understand each other and to live\ncontinually in communion; a community where goodness of heart and simplicity\nwould be at the centre of everything.\u2019 A living out of the words from our\nreading: \u2018May they be one\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, the church has often failed in this calling. Our\nhistory has many stories of hatred between Christians, leading to persecution\nand fierce conflict. And I guess most of us are aware of impulses within us to\njoin up with likeminded believers and condemn others we don\u2019t agree with. My\nfriend Christian talks about \u2018othering\u2019 – setting ourselves apart from other groups\nof people and looking down on them in order to strengthen our own sense of\nbeing right. Yesterday we talked about our impulse to look for the monsters, so\nwe can condemn them. But when you look, you may discover that actually it\u2019s us\nwho are the monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s important at the moment, as our eyes are opened more\nfully to the evil of racism – one ethnic group being victimised, in terribly\nopen or in hidden and subtle ways. There is always a danger that righteous\nanger against injustice moves into hatred of anyone who disagrees with us – justifying\nourselves by demonising others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I\u2019ve been struck by in the response to George Floyd\u2019s\ndeath is the way that many have reflected in a very different way. My son Ben\ntalked about being humbled by the recognition of his own white privilege, and\nothers have written about this time as a time to listen. My daughter and Jo\nfrom our team went along to a vigil at Pittville Park on Monday. It was\ncarefully socially distanced and very respectful, with thoughtful speakers and\na powerful nine minutes of silence as each person went down on one knee. And a\nwonderful gathering of different people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes people asked Brother Roger what the secret was of Taiz\u00e9\nand what his message was to the world. Maybe they were looking for a guru. But\nif you look at the video I\u2019ve put up of him speaking you\u2019ll see that he\u2019s a quietly\nspoken and very humble man. He says that doesn\u2019t believe in \u2018spiritual masters\u2019.\n\u2018All of us are seekers with respect to the realities of God. We have to go from\none discovery to another, our whole lives long.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a challenge to my spiritual pride – and to my\ntendency to write off other people. If we can learn to listen to each other in\nthe church,  recognising the life of God\nin each other, then the world may come to see us less as a picture of division and\nmore as a parable of community – a promise of the possibility of reconciliation.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiz\u00e9 offers a different model to the dualistic division\nwhich separates us into right and wrong, good and bad, and even black and\nwhite. Here we see not two sides, but a community of the nations and a\ngathering of the churches – what Desmond Tutu called the \u2018Rainbow people of\nGod.\u2019 If we can learn to see the church – and wider humanity – more in this way,\nas a wonderfully diverse community then maybe we can move beyond our temptation\nto victimise and condemn, and work towards a world where all are equally\nhonoured and able to flourish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to finish by sharing some words sent me today by\nSarah Mar, who is our Chaplain from the Bahai faith – and you\u2019ll understand why\nI have these roses here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behold a beautiful garden full of flowers, shrubs, and trees.\nEach flower has a different charm, a peculiar beauty, its own delicious perfume\nand beautiful colour. So it is with humanity. It is made up of many races, and\nits peoples are of different colour\u2026\u2026but they all come from the same God. The\ngarden which is pleasing to the eye and which makes the heart glad, is the\ngarden in which are growing side by side flowers of every hue, form and\nperfume, and the joyous contrast of colour is what makes for charm and beauty.\nThe diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as\nit is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a\nperfect chord. Think of them as different coloured roses growing in the\nbeautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n