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U - Knee - T

John Cook discovers it’s not a four-letter word

We have a golden opportunity at Uni. I don’t know if you are aware of it, but we have. I guess this has something to do with the ‘liberal’ atmosphere of university where anything is open for discussion and change, coupled with the first time that we have had the chance to move away from our home churches, that we go to as much out of habit as anything, and experience the variety of services and worship out there and make a choice about where we drag ourselves out of bed on a Sunday morning to attend. Furthermore, it is probably the first time most of us have had a chance to converse and find out about other ‘different’ denominations, to meet real Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans, not some caricature of one, concocted of misunderstood information and incidents in long-past history. We can and must strive to make the most of this God-given opportunity to discover more about others, and, perhaps more importantly, about our own particular brand of Christianity. It is only through dialogue that we have here that we enable the process of healing of our long-lived divisions to continue. It is from the interactions we have here and now, that we will set the ecumenical agenda for the forthcoming years.

So what’s happening on Campus then? Well, it’s been a busy time on the Christian unity front. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but unity events are a little like buses, none for a long time, then a load come along at once. For the past few weeks has seen the signing of the ecumenical Chaplaincy covenant signed, Hes Church’s 25th anniversary of being a LEP, the second joint carol service and, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Having done a long article on the covenant service in the last issue of this hallowed mag, I don’t intend to say that much about it, only to mention the sense of togetherness that most people felt who attended, not least the representatives of the varying denominations, all of whom felt that this was a marker on which things can and must be developed. The representatives were especially impressed on how this was not just a paper agreement, but there were genuine feelings of unity between us.

Hes Church’s 25th anniversary was marked not least with 3 special Sunday morning services, where we had the Bishop of Durham (and ex-Hes Church Anglican minister), the Archbishop of York, and the Chairman of the Methodist Chairman of District, all of whom spoke of the importance of unity, all from different perspectives, perhaps the most strikingly, the Archbishop, re-emphasis how important a united front is when trying to witness, because after all, how can we tell the Good News, if it appears to ‘outsiders’ that we ourselves don’t know what this Good News is ourselves!

The carol service was, as last year, well attended, and very good, but just as last year’s event it seemed to be unsure whether it was supposed to be a ‘traditional’ carol service, or an evangelistic event, and consequently, fell between the two stools a tad.

This term saw the WoPfCU, and, as always, due to it being near the beginning of term, and with all the Christian societies either just about to, or just having changed over, there was not a great deal planned. There was, however, a stonkingly good prayer meeting of the Monday night, and this, again was suprisingly well attended, and left me with cautious hope for the future of unity on campus.

John Cook

Last modified: 25th November 2005