Tower and Town, May 2015

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Love Thy Neighbour As Thyself

Janneke Blokland writes on the theme of ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ as she describes some local community aid.

One of the two great Christian commandments is to love our neighbours as ourselves. There are many different ways of showing love for our neighbours, and one of them is offering practical support to our neighbours in need. This is exactly what a group of enthusiastic parishioners of St Mary’s Church have decided to do. Since last autumn a substantial number of people within the congregation have been involved in offering a helping hand to people in our local community. Projects until now have included gardening, painting and redecorating. The aim of the initiative is to reach out to the wider community beyond the Church and to offer support where it is needed most.

An important aspect of the project is working together with the people who are in need, instead of ‘sorting things out’ for them. Having been involved in a couple of projects now, I am struck by how much fun it actually is to work together with others and really get something done in only one or two days' time. The projects have already made a great difference to all those involved, both to those on the giving and on the receiving end of the work.

There are many ways to be involved in the project: apart from the painting and gardening itself, there are people sewing, dog-walking, praying and making cakes for the well-deserved tea breaks – maybe the most important contribution of all!

Although the initiative was taken by a group of parishioners within St Mary’s Church, I would like to encourage everyone to think if and how you could be involved as well. What started for me as a sense of shared responsibility towards my neighbours, has been transformed into a sense of privilege to be able to work with and for others in this very practical way.

Janneke Blockland