Community

Helen Francis

As many of you will know, at the moment David and I are spending five weeks touring the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in our caravan. As well as being able to revisit places we've been, we are enjoying the delight of discovering and exploring new places together.

Whilst on the island of Barra we visited the heritage museum and learned about how the small communities worked hard together but made time for leisure activities such as music and dancing.

Groups of the unmarried women, whose job was cleaning and salting fish, followed the herring shoals far away from home, ending up in places such as Lowestoft. The guide told us they interviewed an old lady who'd done this, expecting her to dwell on how gruelling the work was and how homesick they were, so far from home. But she surprised them by saying 'they were the happiest days of my life'.

Further up the outer Hebrides, on Lewis, we visited a black house village and saw the meagre living quarters in the little crofts. We watched a demonstration of weaving by a man whose parents had made their living this way. ‘The modern writers and film makers make it all look romantic but it wasn't, it was a very hard life’, he said.

Nowadays many city dwellers dream of getting away from it all and living in remote places such as these, and everywhere you go there are signs that those who have the opportunity have done just that: strange new builds crop up everywhere, and for those who can't afford to uproot themselves permanently there are myriads of holiday homes and camping pods.

Sadly though this doesn't often translate to an idyllic life, and one lady who was a psychiatric nurse, told us mental health issues were the biggest problem on the island. She herself had moved from Glasgow but was going back as she couldn't tolerate the isolation.

So what is it that enabled those in the past to cope with such harsh conditions and even be happy in them, that today's islanders lack, even though they have easier lives?

The answer is something that God encourages us into continually, something that is sadly lacking in so many places, and even in rural idylls leads to crisis. The answer is community. Here are just a few scriptures that encourage community.

Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Hebrews 10:25

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1

We will come to you and will make our home with you.
John 14:23

Where two or three are gathered together there I am in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20

And, of course, we have the example of the early church in Acts 2 who, having increased their number on Pentecost by 5,000 visitors, made sure that those who wanted to stay were drawn into the group and cared for.

It is fitting that we are encouraged to make church a warm accepting community, a place where people can feel accepted and loved, a space that dissipates loneliness and crisis, where we always belong.

For even the most beautiful and peaceful locations can only feed the soul temporarily.
In the words of Bob Marley's song One Love: 'Let's get together and feel all right'.