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REMEMBERING, RECONCILIATION AND HEALING

Canon Mark Bonney, Treasurer (Sunday 1st November 2009)

November is a very special month. We remember and rejoice in our fellowship with the Saints (All Saints Day), we are realistic about the pain and separation that death means (All Souls Day), and we are focussed on the horrors and the loss of war (Remembrance Day). All these celebrations in different ways, touch us at a deep level: perhaps revealing within us fears and anxieties about death, or making us more deeply aware of the unresolved tensions at the heart of life that result in not just me being angry with my neighbour, but nations fighting one another.

Be it on the personal on the wider level these are all times when the healing and reconciling love of Christ is most desperately needed, a ministry of healing and reconciliation that has been committed to his Church, but which, in some of its outworkings is either not properly recognised or appreciated. Or it is a closely guarded secret or something of which people are anxious or afraid (for arm-waving enthusiasts only). The Cathedral has a considerable involvement in the Ministry of Healing and Reconciliation and on Sunday 15 November we hope to raise the awareness of this and invite discussion and engagement with it. At the 10.30 Eucharist the Sermon will talk about healing and reconciliation and in the course of the service the Cathedral’s Healing Group will be commissioned. Following the success of the ‘Bring and Share Lunch’ last January as a way to bring us together to engage with an important area of our life, we plan to do the same again after the Eucharist on 15 November. Do please join together in the Cathedral School’s BSR after the service for refreshments, input from a variety of people with plentiful opportunities to reflect and discuss together, followed by a sharing of the food we bring.

Healing and reconciliation is at the heart of the Christian gospel proclaiming God’s love for a broken world and for broken people: it is something we all need and something which we are all also called to minister. As in different ways we recall aspects of that brokenness this month so I hope we can use the opportunities of 15 November to explore healing and reconciliation together.

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