Good Neighbours?

"If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? ....If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?" (Matt 5:46-47)

Dear Friends, 

What does it take to be a good neighbour at a time of polarisation and division?
Let’s be clear: the Common Good is not a utopian ideal to be imposed by one group upon another. The Common Good is built in relationship: it requires listening. Properly understood it transcends left and right: it cannot be sectarian. We are not all meant to think the same. Intelligent people can come to different conclusions.

Good neighbours build Common Good by respecting each others' different circumstances and interests, and find ways of working constructively together. They have a reconciliation instinct that puts people, families and communities before ideology. Good neighbours have the courage to be constructive while others protest; mix with those who their own crowd rejects; maintain independence of mind; locate news from a range of sources; subvert social media algorithms that drive deeper echo chambers; resist the comforting appeal of virtue signalling. The Common Good is not showy.

In this edition we highlight examples of this reconciliation instinct at work across the churches - in communities, business, financial inclusion, relationship building.

T4CG news in brief
 

What's going on
 

To make sense of a fast changing and complex landscape, we try to source information for you from a range of sources (click on pink links):

"Donald Trump’s election reflects a desire for change and a rejection of a failed political establishment" – writes John Daniel Davidson in the Guardian. Meanwhile Michael Sandel observes that the "establishment elites are now confronting the consequences of their failure to address the big questions people care about" and Robert Hardman in the Daily Mail describes Davos as "The world’s grandest echo chamber."

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In 'Life Without Armour', Brendan O’Neill says people are falling to pieces because we've replaced solidarity and community with identity and individualism. And John Milbank looks at the factors “that provoked an altogether unexpected populist reaction” in this piece on rights, the centrality of relationships in human life and the new intolerance.

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For a well informed briefing on understanding factors around hate crime and far right extremism in the UK, watch this video of a Home Affairs Select Committee, especially the evidence given by Professor Matthew Goodwin.

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It is a highly complex picture - a paradigm shift unfolding across the West.

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In the UK, our own ground is shifting and as we have anticipated we can see the old left and right are being reshaped. With the opposition in difficulty, it is essential to understand what drives Theresa May’s approach: clearly staking out some of the the new post-liberal territory while indicating a definite change in attitude from her predecessors - as explained in this New Statesman interview.

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The US context is of course quite different. We should heed this warning on how not to respond to populism by Andrés Miguel Rondón in the Washington Post drawing on his experience in Venezuela: “Don’t feed polarisation, disarm it….whole generations were split in two. A sense of shared culture was wiped out. …Show concern, not contempt, for the wounds of those who brought him to power.”  As Rondon says, to be effective, you first need to understand the worldview behind the new administration. For this reason, we include here a link to the now famous interview with White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon at the Vatican’s Human Dignity Institute in 2014. Gideon Rachman in the FT writes that “the polemic over the US ‘Muslim ban’ will not be an isolated event. On the contrary, it is a foretaste of the future of politics in the West.”

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As hysteria takes hold in some quarters, Ian Geary recommends contemplation in a world of reaction. Clinging on to activism or to the comfort of an old position may betray that deep fear in all of us, that others will see one’s weakness, a response which may deepen divides, as Jack Wakefield reflects here with some humility.

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The Dean of Washington National Cathedral said "...we can have no convening authority if those with whom we disagree only see a turned back or are met with condescension or derision."  It is surprising what we can learn when estranged parties listen to each other – worth a read to see what happened when Mary Beard and Arron Banks went for lunch.

Our regular snapshot overview of common good activity across the churches
 

Serving the community as an outward facing church - being good neighbours - there is so much going on in so many different sectors and across different traditions. With more collaboration this work can make even more of an impact.

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There is a lot of talk about ‘a church for the poor and of the poor’ but how many churches really understand what’s involved? The National Estate Churches Network know this territory well: find out more in their newsletter and learn how housing estate ministry is becoming a focus for policy within the C of E and other traditions.

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Churches are stepping up across the country to host refugees through the government’s community sponsorship scheme. Click here for the official guidance and here to learn about ForRefugees which offers support and training for churches. You may also be interested in Refugee tales, their 11 mile walk, and their creative campaign against the indefinite detention of refugees, asylum seekers and immigration detainees.

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Inspiration for Lent
 

Read Pope Francis' statement given on the World day of Peace “…we realise that we are a people, that we belong, that only within a community, within a family, can we as persons find the 'warmth' that enables us to grow in humanity, and not merely as objects to consume and be consumed”.