Tower and Town, October 2026 (view the full edition)Clergy LetterWhat are you afraid of? How afraid are you? Is your fear rational? Or irrational? Are you afraid of things that might happen? Or things that are already happening? Perhaps you are worried about climate change. About what kind of world our children will inherit. Perhaps you are worried about immigration. Or how our communities will cope with rapid change. Perhaps it is crime. War. The economy. Housing. The loss of a familiar way of life. Perhaps it is something much more personal. These questions are worth asking. We are living through anxious times and it is healthy to talk about our fears. We should not dismiss them. Nor should we assume that every fear is justified. We need to listen. We need to ask questions. We need to ponder and think things through. And, as Christians, we need to pray. We can bring our fears to God. We can name them before him. We can ask for wisdom. For courage. For peace. But there is another challenge: other people are afraid too. They may be afraid of different things from us. They may look at the same world and see things quite differently. Can we listen to them as well? This matters in a democracy. When people feel their concerns are being ignored or dismissed, they will look for new answers. They will support new ideas. Sometimes they will support new political movements. That is not necessarily a failure of democracy. It may be democracy doing its job. Our task is not to make one another more afraid. Nor is it to pretend that difficult things are not happening. We can talk. We can disagree. We can listen. And we can do all this without ‘othering’ those who disagree with us. John puts it beautifully in his Gospel: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” Perhaps this is where God is leading us. Not to ignore our fears. Not to let them rule us. But to bring them into the light of His love and from that calmer place, to listen to one another, and to Him. Chris Smith |