Friendship
‘I have called you friends…’
Jesus in John’s Gospel (15.15)
Friendship with God means that we try to care for others and open ourselves to their concern for us; that we work through differences honestly and carefully; that we value each other for what we are, not for what we do.
There are people from many different backgrounds, age groups and life experiences among us, but we have experienced the power of God’s love to bring us together in unity. We eat together, laugh together and, sometimes, cry together. It’s not just the Minister, the Pastoral Worker and the Pastoral Visitors who care for the congregation – we believe that we all are called to act as true friends to one another.
Although we want to draw closer to each other we never want to become a ‘holy huddle’. The sister churches in our Methodist circuit, and those of other Christian traditions in the borough, remind us that we should never restrict our concern to those of our small group. And friendship commits us to dialogue with those who do not share our faith that Jesus is Lord. When Jesus befriends someone he wants to introduce them to his other friends, and so the circle of love and concern keeps spreading to new people.