On Saturday 3rd August, Simon Cross was welcomed, Ordained and Inducted to the Hull Team of Churches and Peter’s House. The service took place at St Ninian’s and St Andrew’s United Reformed Church at the same time as rioters did their best to cause mayhem only a short distance away.
A number of people who attended the service found themselves confronted by, or directly affected by the aftermath of, the violent clashes between anti immigrant gangs and the police.
“I was really struck by the difference,” one person said, “between what I witnessed at the riot, and what I witnessed in the church.”
The congregation included people from Japan, Congo, Iran, South Africa, Pakistan, India and beyond, many of whom represented different faiths and traditions – from Baha’i and Buddhists to Muslims and Sikhs, from an Irish druid to a Jewish atheist – together they were a beautiful testament to the way that people from all different cultures and world views can live peacefully together.
Simon with friend Azeem Bahksh, student minister/ordinand
Simon with Revd Jamie Kissack, Synod Moderator
In the same way URC folk were joined at the service by Catholics, Unitarians, Anglicans, Methodists, Anabaptists and Pentecostals, conservatives and liberals among them. The breadth of Christian traditions present in the room was a clear depiction of the church’s unity in catholicity.
The service concluded with a blessing which included the following words:
It only takes a whisper to break the silence
It only takes a glimmer to illumine the darkness
It only takes a trickle to wear down the solid stone…
In the face of great challenges small things seem absurdly weak.
But there is a curious strength in fragility,
a strange, subversive, power in frailty.
So into the silence of domination and injustice
let’s take the whisper of hope.
Into the darkness of conflict and polarisation
let’s take the glimmer of peace.
And into the solidity of suffering and oppression
let’s take the trickle of compassion.
“It was a beautiful afternoon,” Simon said, “there was so much love and kindness in the room – which fills me full of hope.”
For more information on the Hull Team Churches visit: https://www.hullurcchurches.org.uk/welcome.htm
All of the churches meet every Sunday for worship, you will always be welcome to join them, and meet Simon too.