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Editorial
What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community.
And no community not lived in praise of God.
(T.S. Eliot Choruses for the Rock, The Wasteland)
What would the poet T.S. Eliot say of today’s society? Yet he was right. We are made for community since we are made in the image of God who himself is a community of three.
Where true community exists, God is glorified. But how and where is that true community being lived? For community to be true and lasting there needs to be
- acceptance
- openness
- sharing
- accountability and mutual responsibility
- a common focus
- love
Sadly much family life fails on the first five of these, and even love is greatly lacking. Members seem to pull in different directions, lack respect for one another, even turn to domestic violence.
Some of the best examples of community are those found in villages or tribes where there is a common bond and a deep caring of one another. We still see this in some developing countries where people are bonded by local ties. In South Africa people refer to themselves as not living in townships but in township communities. And after all the troubles of apartheid and opposing factions within a township, they are now looking to build community. One of my great joys of being bishop of my area is that there are a number of such township communities. Every time I enter one I feel a sense of community, of extended family and of belonging. In our big cities, to our shame, that sense of community can be lost. So T.S. Eliot wrote:
And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads,
And no man knows or cares who is his neighbour,
Unless his neighbour makes too much disturbance…
The joy of an institutional community such as a religious community or the Church, is the common vocation, a mutual sense of God’s call that binds hearts as one, for all have given up all to follow Christ.
The failures have often been due to particular hierarchical structures that have robbed members of their mature responsibility in making choices and owning them.
The joy within a religious community and homes such as L’Arche comes with the love shared and the acknowledgement that everyone is equally precious in God’s eyes. Individual stories and gifts can be woven together to build community into a seamless robe. ‘Can’ but all too often don’t when we start making comparisons. For the competitive spirit kills community:
compare St Paul’s description of the community of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 which recognises every part of the body as a gift for the rest.
Failure in community is all too often due to a lack of openness a fear of saying what one thinks, of being perfectly open and transparent with one another. When fear stalks the corridors and cloisters; where there is murmuring and grumbling; where people hide behind structures rather than being open and honest; where some resort to subversive tactics, community is in danger.
Yet one of the greatest needs of today is to live out community, to witness to its richness. Our so-called disabled members of society are often outstanding witnesses to real community. They are what they are. They do not dissemble or pretend, they say what they think, are not impressed by qualifications and high positions. They have an uncanny ability to see through sham. They have their rows but rarely bear grudges. They care for one another, weep when others weep and laugh when others laugh. We would be poorer as a world without their simplicity and love.
The absence of community surrounds us in a daily way – in our neighbourhoods, work places and the anguish of our own souls. We are not always aware of this void but the scarcity of a deep sense of community can wreak havoc below the surface of outwardly busy lives.
Many people find community in their churches, especially the local one and wonderfully, more and more churches have opened their doors to become community centres inviting local people to use the facilities for meeting, sharing a lunch, taking up a hobby. One would hope that perhaps for most it is worship, especially the Eucharist, that bonds them together, but not all. However, Jesus died for the world, not just the Church, and if Christians can lead the way in building true communities, they will certainly do so to the praise of God.
Perhaps within our Anglican Communion our present difficulties have been exacerbated by our loss of community. If we could regain this sense of community and of belonging to one another, we would surely be able to address the issues that divide us with grace and truth to the glory of God.
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