Day 26 - The landscapes of our lives

There has been an amazing exhibition and series of talks at the British Library this autumn, called, ‘Secret Maps’. As an extreme cartophile, I have attended as much of this as I can. The ‘Secret’ bit refers to the purposes and stories often hidden in, or excluded from the contours and grid lines. Maps have been used to dominate, define and control, but also to inform, enable and liberate. We heard about maps and war, maps and spies, who is missing from the map (often indigenous people, divided communities, women, children), and how hidden maps have helped people to escape from persecution and find freedom.

I love the way my mobile phone offers me a little tiny map, which follows me around, and crucially, knows where I am (which I often don’t)! But there is nothing like a big, fold-out paper map which spreads, fold by fold, into a broad landscape or townscape or starscape, and invites you to lift your eyes beyond your existing horizon to encounter new features in your world, new people, new ideas, a whole new universe.

Earlier this month, the International Congregational Theological Commission teamed up with the Congregational Library and Archives in Boston for our second joint webinar (second of many, we hope). Rev. Dr Haroutune Selimian, the Moderator of the International Congregational Fellowship, and President of the Armenian Protestant Community in Syria, was our speaker. The meeting was chaired by Rev. Dr Brian Fiu Kolia in Samoa, and other participants joined from Africa, Myanmar, India, USA and Europe. Our webscape was the surface of the planet!

And as we talked, we charted our shared context. Our chair greeted us from ‘the future’ – the small hours of the following day, the other side of the date-line. Our American host acknowledged the First Nation Americans from whose indigenous homeland he was speaking. The discussion after the talk included a conversation between a participant in North East India and the speaker about their shared experience of persecution in vastly differing contexts, while the rest of us listened, and learned, and prayed.

What a privilege to share in such an event! Through all that blessed online hour, we gave thanks to God for opening our eyes and ears to each other. At the end, mention was made of the charity, Christian Rebuild, which grew out of the Congregational churches’ response to the needs of people in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and still works with the Armenian Protestant community in Syria, among others, and which has recorded a Carol Service, available through the Congregational Federation. Look out for a mailing soon, or visit https://www.christianrebuild.co.uk/ for more information.

Let us pray:

God of the universe,

We thank you for leading us through the landscapes of our lives.

Wherever we go, you are with us;

You lift our eyes beyond the narrow horizons of our own culture and experience;

And you give us the powerful gift of prayer, as broad as the world’s needs.

Amen

Janet Wootton