Asunder

Whatever holds us together is threatened by forces rending us apart: Disparity of wealth and poverty increase the emptiness of belly or soul. Migrants displaced, overwhelm our sense of identity, security. Extremes of weather surge and pull at our foundations; the edge of chaos. The media of instant communication should make us instantly at one, but expose our privacy, vulnerability. The news makes us voyeurs of misery and achievement fostering both guilt and envy. Even as we shut if off, we isolate ourselves from the human story that would hold us as one. Our prayers for unity that we may be one in Christ, are frustrated by the walls of our heritage, our governance forming boundaries that enlarge the effort it takes to come together. Ignorance of the faith of the other breeds intolerance of cherished beliefs. The very enthusiasms we espouse to overcome the gulfs of isolation underline our difference. Even the sexuality of others is seen not as an intimate union but a promiscuous corruption of relating that was meant to bring new life. The bond of humanity is threatened by forces that would put us asunder. The phone rings, interrupts my isolation: I am pulled from fragments into now. My neighbour so other, recovered, I can after all take to her Church in this octave of Unity. There I am welcome in the communion of hymns, held, with Wesleyan warmth.