Families, communities and nations are shaped and bound together by their common stories. Stories of both joys and sorrows.
There are moments in the procession of the our long island history which in their re-telling have become the stuff of legend and which define the character of our island people. They have inspired our writers, artists and leaders. King Alfred hiding from the Viking hoards in the marshes of Athelney in Somerset emerging to defeat their armies. The rescuing of almost all of the British Expeditionary Force, some 338,000 men, from the beaches of Dunkirk by a flotilla of more than 800 civilian pleasure craft in the May of 1940. This year we have marked the 80th Anniversary of D-day and the stories of courage and sacrifice in the cause of freedom, justice and the defence of our shared values, our way of life have been told by a dwindling band of men and women who took part in these momentous events. As I watched the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall I was struck by power of their first hand witness to the events they had lived through. It was as though their memories were ours too. As this remarkable generation fades these stories may well become the stuff of legend. But there is a risk that when history becomes legend there is a danger that we may forget the lessons of our past – that freedom, justice and hope, our way of life and shared values, democracy, are all hard won and must be defended strongly in times of peace as well as conflict.
Hope is an important corner stone of a Christian life, in fact a good life however we are inspired whether our hearts be sacred or secular. But today 24/7 news, social media and fake-news unceasingly breaks into our lives with a catalogue of tragedy, war, fear, climate change and suffering. In the face of this our sense of hope, our agency, is diminished and evil is emboldened persuading us that we are powerless to effect change. I think it was my mother who once said to me “You can’t change the world but you can change your corner of it.” This profoundly hopeful statement has much to commend it. Each of us, if we turn our attention from the digital media for a moment, will bear witness to extraordinary hope filled acts of human kindness and generosity all around us, especially in response to suffering and need.