Saturday 23 March 2024

Community trusting the church

 


I was a little wary of some wellbeing provision locally.  How could I tell if it was mainstream or wacky?  Especially as it didn’t display on its website any badges of affiliation to any respectable professional organisation.  As it happens, its counsellors were all so trained and affiliated.

It turned out they were more suspicious of me, and of the church I was representing.  How could they know I wasn’t going to, say, promote gay conversion therapy, or subvert its nonjudgmental commitment to its clients in some other way?  After all, I had no initials after my name indicating my membership of a suitable professional body, and there are no badges on the church’s website which would indicate we are safe to be around.

Meanwhile, I saw a fresh plank of oak in the Cathedral’s workshop the other day, being told it was destined to extend the desk in front of the new Canon Missioner’s stall.  In no time it appeared unstained, carved exactly to match the desk in front of the neighbouring stall.  And yesterday, although there is no third picture to show it, it was stained so that it now nobody would think it wasn’t always there.

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