Intro

Hello world!

OK, that may seem a little over-ambitious for my first post in my first ever blog, but this is something I want anyone to be able to read.  Is it possible to talk about subjects, particularly religious-based ones, which every one of the human race’s 7 billion strong members can relate to?  Well, there’s only one way to find out.

So this is my intro, I guess.  I am James, 36 years old, and I am a Christian.  By that I don’t mean I just dutifully write ‘C of E’ on the Census form every ten years and that’s that.  I go to my local church which is St Bart’s in Horley, Surrey, UK.  Or, if you like, the parish of Horley in the dioceses of Southwark.  But I haven’t been going for very long, I confess; in fact, I have yet to mark one year since my first attendance.

It’s fair to say, therefore, that I wrestle with lots of questions about religion, as I’m sure most of us do.  Sometimes our family, friends, colleagues, leaders etc can help us answer those questions.  But many are left unanswered, and we feel we either must work out the answers ourselves, or trust in our faiths that the answers will be revealed to us later in life, or perhaps at the end.

So who can answer this question: what is wrong with the world?  OK, sounds a little harsh I know, I’m not accusing the world of being intrinsically ‘wrong’.  But who feels, like me, that there is too much disharmony?  Whether it be domestic, local, national conflict, out-and-out war or a street scuffle?  No, these things will never go away completely, but are we really thinking about whether their causes are worthwhile?

So far in my ‘nearly year’ as a Christian I have seen varying levels of tolerance displayed by various types of individual towards one religion or another; both to and from my own religion, between other religions, and even between divisions within religions.  I wonder if the tension is mainly due to people wishing, for whatever reason, to focus on their differences rather than what could bind them together.

So that’s what I’m going to be blogging about here.  I’m going to take a journey, a spiritual one if you like, and really look at what people think about the factors which separate them versus those which, if they looked hard enough, could signal their kinship.  After all, if the human race were a sports team, yes it would be made up from people of vastly different backgrounds, cultures, creeds etc, but their ultimate goal (literally) would still be the same, wouldn’t it?

So I take a deep breath and commit myself to this work.  I have no idea how many, if any, of you will join, follow, or relate to me on the way.  But I look forward to finding out.

God bless, whoever yours may be.