Our New Testament reading today continues St Paul’s exploration of the theme of unity and diversity in a passage that proves remarkably poignant for our common life at this time – and not just because we reach the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  On Wednesday Bishop Mark and Archdeacon Fiona (of Horsham) came to discuss the Crawley (& Horsham) Parish Review with the PCC.  Careful and often profound observations made for a positive and engaged meeting in which your PCC reps did you proud (and, as the Chair of the PCC, I express my thanks to all those who came).  Much of the time was spent exploring the recommendation that we consider whether the church’s mission in this part of Crawley would be better served by splitting the parish into two or remaining as one.  Unity and diversity again.  It was encouraging to see how the needs of the communities we serve were in the foreground – and that the recognition of Jesus’ mission (and ours!) offered in today’s gospel was the starting point rather than any pre-conceived idea of church structures.  Elsewhere in the Review there were concrete recommendations about splitting the other three parishes in Crawley and we were reassured by the visitors that the recommendation had been framed to emphasise that it was for us to consider and work out the best way forward in our context.  Questions of resourcing were also discussed and it was clear that the focus our current Home Groups are giving to identifying and releasing the spiritual gifts of diverse members of our congregations to collaborate in our common mission was an essential first step (ring any bells with the Corinthians reading?).

Every blessing to you all