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Week of Weeks

Today's offering on God Morning Ulster's "Thought for the Day", my last for a wee while...

Have you ever said “There aren’t enough hours in the day” or “there aren’t enough days in the week”?
Well now there aren’t enough weeks in the year… Because at the moment we are apparently in the middle of, not only the well publicized Christian Aid Week and Community Relations Week, but also, Choose Charity Shops Week - a nationwide campaign to encourage people to donate goods to charity shops; Dying Matters Awareness Week, aimed at encouraging individuals and organisations to take simple steps that can make a big difference to people when they are dying or bereaved, and International Food Allergy Awareness Week, an initiative of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Alliance… a group name that was a significant challenge to say live on radio at 6.55am…
All of these are important issues but it does speak to me of a world where, despite the proliferation of ways of communicating with each other, and the fact that many people will have diverse interests… hence many of those working in the community relations sector will be keen Christian Aid supporters and may have a range of food allergies… still, all too often those at the centre of worthy causes think that theirs is the only show in town…
Earlier this week I watched a documentary on the stock-market flotation of a certain HUGE social networking site, and the assertion of its founder that he wants to make the world more open and connected… Aiming for multi-dimensional relationships across the web – or “friendships” as they call them, fuelling greater communication and collaboration.
I’m not entirely convinced about the seeming altruism of this organisation’s so-called “social mission” even though I use its site... I’m also not convinced that simply having the information out there is enough… Much of what happens on social networks these days follows the pattern of previous media, from the printed word to television… including what I am doing now on radio… One way communication… A monologue…
For a truly connected world we need to listen as well as speak… we need to be aware of other’s interests and initiatives and not just our own…
That’s what is at the back of both Christian Aid week and Community Relations Week… With the latter we are being encouraged to look beyond our narrow definitions of us and them… While, through the efforts of Christian aid… and other development charities, we are prompted to look beyond our borders to the needs of others across the world…
And it is something which is right at the heart of the Christian faith… that we are called on not only to love God with all we have and are… But to love our neighbours as ourselves… And in this shrinking world our neighours may live half a world away…
That is an important challenge for this or any week…

Shalom
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