Unity, diversity and an old patchwork quiltScot Bower - 27 Aug 2010
My wife, Misty and I own a threadbare patchwork quilt that my mother-in-law made many years ago. We were living in the North of England back then and I can remember fighting freezing winters wrapped in it’s warmth.
That blanket has been with us ever since and was one of few possessions that accompanied us as we left the UK for Eastern Europe.
Over the years an increasing number of the square fabric patches have succumbed to the passage of time and ripped, faded or simply worn right through. Despite my callous assertions that the blanket was well past it’s best and should be consigned to the bin, Misty has determined to keep it alive and tried to repair it with material from our travels. So much so that the once carefully designed pattern is now unrecognisable. A chaotic assembly of colour and texture is slowly taking it’s place. It may no longer be pretty but it’s a reminder of our journey and nicely illustrates the complexity and diversity we’ve seen as we've traveled all over this wonderful continent.
We live in an exciting era which many believe finds Europe as the first post-christian continent. Jesus and His church have been rejected and pushed to the edge of society. Like our quilt, church, to the casual observer, has lost it’s colour, it’s design and it’s usefulness. And yet as I travel I see remarkable beauty and opportunity for the church in all it’s diversity. Over the past year I’ve had the immense blessing to have worshiped in settings as diverse as an Orthodox monastery, and an emerging post-communist Christian community, a Franciscan cathedral and a tiny Lutheran chapel. I’ve met and prayed with believers from the far north of Finland and taken communion with ex drug-addicts in the former Yugoslavia. In each of those settings I've seen the church, full of life, communicating the hope of Christ to the people around them.
The beleaguered Church in Europe may be taking on a fresh design, one of such striking diversity that it’s attraction is not obviously apparent but when we step back and consider the whole we see an enormous array of colour that has its own chaotic beauty.
In the years of the Early Church, the leader of the persecuted churches in the region of Antioch wrote to a younger bishop “have a care for unity, that which there is nothing finer”. He understood that when the Church was under attack unity was of increased importance.
Polycarp, the young bishop, towards the end of his life made the mammoth journey from (what is now) Izmir in Turkey to Rome. After spending time with his counterpart wrestling over issues that faced the church and finding no way in which to agree, the two men celebrated communion together. They refused to allow the differences between them to affect the unity of the Church. They understood that our differences are part of the beauty of our unity. We don't all look the same, have the same cultural background, thankfully we don't even all like the same music! But we hold together in prayer each playing their part in the united body of Christ on earth.
That patchwork quilt of ours may look a little less ordered these days but I like it that way and perhaps that was part of the design after all.
24-7 Prayer are championing a season of prayer for the prodigal continent of Europe. To find out more and to sign up go to www.24-7prayer.eu