Thursday, June 01, 2006
Three-foot long chop sticks
From the Revd Tim Ling, Vicar of St Swithun’s, Bathford
A sumptuous feast, guests obliged to eat with three-foot long chop sticks, each desperately seeking to feed themselves, unable to get any of the mouth-watering fare near their mouths. A picture of hell.
A sumptuous feast, guests obliged to eat with three-foot long chop sticks, each feeding the person sitting opposite them. A picture of heaven.
A friend of mine used to be vicar of a town in the Midlands. Each week thousands of people spending thousands of pounds on the Lottery, desperately seeking to get rich quick, never getting anywhere near it.
He worked out that if each of them pooled together the lottery money each spent individually over the course of a year, the town would be able to afford a public library, a public tennis court and a range of other public amenities.
Co-operation is a powerful tool for increasing the sum total of individual and community well-being.
The sign over the new shop reads: ‘Bathford Village Shop: a Community Co-operative.’ It is wonderful that we still have a shop; it is fantastic to go in and see so many different members of our community serving behind the counter, getting to grips with the dreaded ‘till’; it is a joy to sense their enthusiasm. Perhaps the front page of the bulletin is a place to be able to say to all those who dreamed, planned, worked so hard and are now delivering the vision of a co-operative shop to go on serving our community, ‘Congratulations! Well done! and Thank you!’
And to say to Iqbal and Masuma, who have served us for so many years, ‘Thank you to you too and how lovely it is to have the new-look Post Office next door.’
Jesus once said,
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full … For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
With best wishes,
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