IN THE “malaise” of an increasingly divided world, the Church can too easily find itself “pulling up the drawbridge and building bigger walls”, the Archbishop of York has warned in a sermon preached at Christ Church, Westerly, Rhode Island, on the eve of Pentecost.
He was speaking during a two-day visit to the United States to promote the work of the Compass Rose Society, which supports the the Anglican Communion Office and the international work of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The invitation came from its president, the Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt Revd Daniel Gutiérrez, who described the Society’s function as “not just writing cheques”, but “journeying alongside our siblings in Christ, doing the hard work of building trust, understanding, and relationships”.
Speaking of the significance for the life and mission of the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Archbishop said: “Let us be clear that — in an increasingly divided, polarised, impatient, and intolerant world, where the echo chambers of social media and the commodification of truth drag us into siloes where we become fearful of each other, and fearful of difference, pull up the drawbridge on our neighbour, build bigger walls, post more sentries — we can easily end up not only hating our neighbour, but even wondering whether they are fully human at all.
“Such is the malaise across the whole of our world today, more needful than ever to receive afresh the beautiful and bewildering gift of the Spirit.”
He urged: “Look at the world itself: the very diverse and interconnected world God has made. We know that protecting the biodiversity of species is the only way of saving the planet, and, without it, everything suffers.
“And we, the human family, are also made in God-given and God-blessed diversity — and yet one humanity inhabiting one world. In every age, it is tempting to define ourselves by our differences. We have always been good at building walls of exclusion, and the story of human history is a bloody story of fear and conquest.”
The gospel, he concluded, “is also our only hope for lasting peace across the world and between its warring cultures and nations. As farmers on the great prairies of this vast continent have always known, you don’t need to build walls to keep your cattle in, not if you have dug a well.”