IN 1986 I WAS WORKING ALONGSIDE Bishop Roy Williamson, then of Bradford, later of Southwark, as his domestic chaplain. That year the bishop published his Primary Visitation Charge to the Diocese of Bradford. I’ve just re-read it and so much of what he wrote then is apposite for the Church now:

… there is Hope. The Church needs to be a bringer of hope to a world where many live without hope. The Church is intended to be a sign, a microcosm of the community to which it points – which is the Kingdom of God.

When the Spirit came at Pentecost everyone heard in his own tongue the wonderful works of God. It was a symbol of the Spirit’s ministry. Separateness and division were overcome. The dividing wall between people was broken down for ‘in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.28)

Here indeed is hope for a divided world. If within our churches there is openness and acceptance, love and support, honesty and healing, reconciliation and peace, then we have hope indeed to offer the world. But if these things are absent from the Church how can they be offered to the world? The world is therefore left without hope, and, perhaps, the Church is left without a Gospel.