Good Night You Blokes
November 25th, 2004
Dear Friends
One of my earliest memories of boarding school life, in a room with a dozen pre-teen boys having exhausted our stock of Suzy Ma-twe-twe jokes was the ritual round of saying ‘good night you blokes, sorry if I have done anything to upset you’. It was a convention of social cohesion in the midst of frivolous compulsiveness! Demanding apologies has become vogue. Pundits demand an apology from the Prime Minister for leading us into war under a false premise. Boris Johnson was required to apologise for an editorial which reflected on the emotive spirit of Liverpudlians, by contrast a BBC reporter was required to apologise for shedding a tear over the plight of Yasser Arafat. More seriously, an apology was demanded from the Spaniards for racial harassment at a football match and there have been more examples during the last couple of weeks. Does any of this make a difference to our social cohesion?
Our Christian model suggests that ‘if we confess our sins, He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’. Clearly apologies need to be matched with forgiveness and cleansing. It seems to me that our need is not so much for ritual apologies, but for heartfelt forgiveness by those hurt and for healing between those offended, with intent of remedial action.
I have just spent a week with colleagues at the Division Winter Meetings. There may be an illusion that these grandiose events are the forum for big decisions to be imposed on faithful minions. The reality is quite different. Indeed many of the decisions on constitutional and policy amendments were pre-scripted onto a CD and are for the most part numbingly boring to the extent that most participants were distracted behind their LCD monitors to the frustration of the Chair! No doubt we owe him an apology! But I am reminded that the job of leadership is not so much to make decisions, as to build trust.
There are many good things happening in our midst for which we can be proud. The initiative and creativity displayed around our field is encouraging. The theme was ‘Growing Together’ and I suspect that the spirit among friends suggests that this may well be happening. East and West Europe seem to understand each other better, North and South seemed less polarised. Christian, Muslim and Jew were looking for common ground and shared experience. Old and young reflected on their connectedness. Right and Left recognise their dependence on God’s spirit. The commonality of our human destiny in Christ seems to trump the despair of isolation in selfish sinfulness.
Our year is drawing to a close, like me you may feel tired and may be looking for facts and figures to affirm your service, you may even wish to count the number of apologies solicited. I suspect however that were we to ask how much we have forgiven, and how much we have drawn closer to those with whom we differ, the outcome may well be more fruitful? Thank you for your service, I certainly appreciate your effort to contribute to a greater whole. I am humbled by my own inadequacies and can only say again in my weak and frivolous compulsiveness ‘sorry you blokes if I have done anything to upset you’ and trust that together we experience the warmth of forgiveness, together with the joy of service.
Yours truly,
Victor Pilmoor
Treasurer