LW News Article - February 07

Unity

I write this at the start of a week of prayer for Christian Unity. Looking from the outside it seems that the Christians are far from united with their many denominations which have at times been used as a rallying point for violent dissent. Even looking at the church from the inside we can see it is far from perfect and disunity is a real problem.

However here in Long Whatton we feel that God has been reminding us of his message to “Love one another, as I have loved you, and by this everyone will know you are my disciples” (John 13:34). Therefore as followers of the same Jesus who first said these words we are going to try and work more closely together. We’ve started by planning a number of events for the village together and committed to support each other in these. The next of these is the pancake party on the 22nd (I know it’s not a Tuesday but the Community Centre was unavailable!), including the annual indoor pancake races! In April there will be cheese and wine at All Saints and strawberries at the Methodist in July.

Now unfortunately churches are made up of imperfect people, and love is not a feeling (as some Valentine cards would have us believe) but is hard work, so we may not always get it right. But it does give us plenty of opportunities to practice forgiveness and means that if there are any other imperfect people out there you too would be very welcome in any one of our congregations – in fact the perfect need not apply!

Enjoy your pancakes (and opening all those Valentines cards!)

Andy