Bishop Joanne writes…
Earlier this month, I ate so many scones recently that I was “scone-fident” that I would soon look like one of those jammy, creamy treats. But, thankfully, “when they’re scone, they’re scone,” so we’re now back to healthier eating at my home.
My excuse is that for the first week in July, we hosted 12 garden parties at the Bishop’s House in Ipswich. With a beautiful marquee to keep the sun off us, and the Suffolk Standard flying proudly on our flagpole, we had the opportunity to share lunches, teas, and evening receptions with a whole variety of people from church and public life across our county.
I wanted to thank people for their service in church and public life in our wonderful county. I also wanted to say thank you for the incredibly warm reception that I’ve had from Suffolk people since I was welcomed into my role as your bishop at a service during January at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds.
With an excellent team of caterers, the home team from Bishop’s house, and some young hospitality assistants, including my lovely goddaughter on work experience, we welcomed clergy, lay ministers, diocesan staff, heads of Church of England schools, parish safeguarding officers, and many who serve in civic and political life, voluntary, charity, and faith sector organizations and the armed forces.
For millennia, human beings have gathered and hosted one another. For birthdays, weddings, funeral wakes, and many other events that mark the joys and sorrows of our lifespan, we seek each other out, coming together to eat, pray, debate, lament, and share ideas.
Food helps us to strengthen the bonds of kinship and friendship. Hospitality is also a form of witness. By sitting and eating together, we are saying to each other that we are willing to attend to each other’s lives. We are willing to unpack together what matters, to bear witness to the events that shape us as people and communities.
In our household, we tease my mother-in-law for the frequency with which she quotes the popular cook Mary Berry, who once said that she has a basket into which her guests and grandchildren are invited to place their phones when they come to eat with her. The phones stay there, while the assembled company properly eats, talks, and listens – without distraction. We do laugh, but we know she is right, and not only because I’m sure Mary’s cakes – and indeed scones – are worth everyone’s undivided attention.
In the Church of England in Suffolk, we want to be attentive to what is happening in the life of our communities. We’re undergoing a period of deep listening.
And so, I warmly invite people in Suffolk to take part in a survey so we can better understand where we are as a Church now – our gifts, our resources, our challenges and the opportunities ahead.
The survey link is available here.
The book of Revelation describes our encounter with God in terms of God’s infinite hospitality to us. Written to the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea, chapter 3 highlights not only God’s promise of protection to us, but also his invitation through Jesus Christ to intimacy and victory with him despite the world’s trials. Jesus says (v 20), “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Jesus is our best feast companion, the ultimate witness with whom we can also share our lives. Jesus is ready to host us and is also waiting for us to invite him in. As well as pointing to God’s loving welcome to us, Jesus gives us an example of how we can share hospitality, make space, and encounter each other fully as human beings. In Revelation, the churches are also challenged not to be lukewarm, but to be clear about what they believe and clear in their poverty and ignorance about their need for God. I sometimes think about this instruction when I am with people of other faiths.
Listening to them and sharing hospitality doesn’t in any way mean that either they or I intend to dilute what we each believe. But in listening to them and hearing their stories of faith, I am reminded ever more clearly of my own poverty and my ignorance and my need, like them, for God.
Muslim and Sikh community leaders at Ipswich’s mosque and Ipswich’s gurdwara have already been incredibly kind in inviting me to feast with them, at an iftar during Ramadan and at a breakfast with prayers. Delicious food, on both occasions! We have stayed in touch since then, meeting again in March at the Justice Service in St Edmundsbury Cathedral and corresponding by email.
I have been thinking recently of my Muslim friends and reached out to them earlier this month after the terror threat at the UK Ijtima event at Shrubland Hall, in Barham, near Ipswich.
I believe in standing together against anti-Muslim hatred, and indeed against any words or actions that create fear or threaten the peaceful coexistence of all good people of faith. At times like this, it is important that we reaffirm our commitment to one another as neighbours, friends, and fellow members of our Suffolk community. We may have different beliefs and practices, and I would expect none of us to be lukewarm about our faith. But there is also much that we share, and I am grateful that we can sit and eat together and share our different perspectives.
To all my friends and neighbours, people of any faith or none, I am deeply grateful for the friendship we share and for all that you contribute to the life of our county.
Long may we continue to eat together.
