Tower and Town, June 2016

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Clergy Letter: Teamwork

The Football and Rugby seasons have ended, Cricket, Tennis and the Olympic Games dominate and it is said that sport takes up more time, money and energy than most religious practice does. But it does bring people together in a sense of shared enjoyment, belief and commitment. We may favour sports that highlight individual prowess or those that are team games. Team games carry the extra chalenge of a group having to work together to achieve their aim. When this does not work, the result can be mutual blame and a desire to find a scapegoat. When it does work, the shared celebrations add an extra expression to what was has been a remarkable display of how human beings can cooperate in often intricate and exceptionally demanding efforts.

For those who are turned off by any sport, the same collaboration can be heard in any music group. Less observed by the public are the engineers who create the complex machinery, buildings and services we take for granted as part of our modern world. A lot of thought and ingenuity goes into the processes that help us work with one another rather than at loggerheads. The art of good management is to create the environment and atmosphere where the skills of all are recognised and used. Although this can be tough and demanding, what is successful does not just happen because we hope it will.

As Christians we are asked to do the same. Our ability to be one and to live, believe and work together is ultimately the gift of God's own love living within us. It will always be a challenge. We will try shortcuts, make assumptions, identify God's will too quickly with our own. We will be afraid. But like the sunflower constantly turning its face towards the sun, so we are to turn again and again to God, that it may be God's love that truly enlightens and guides us.

Father John Blacker