Thought for the Day ~ 7th February 2016

REFLECT
Sometimes parishes can seem like a club: new members may be seen as a good thing as long as they don’t interfere with the way things have always been done. What sort of Church or Parish do we want? One that is small in number but committed to a somewhat rigid and exclusive attitude towards church teaching and liturgy? Or one that is broader, more accepting of people as they find themselves and respecting decisions they have made in good conscience?
Prophets are uncomfortable people. They come to disturb us when we have become complacent, settled and content with the way things are. It is easy to dismiss them as idealists or just cranks so that we don’t have to listen to what they have to say. It is also too easy to dismiss critics of the Church as an institution as being disloyal, when in fact they care deeply about the Church as the Body of Christ and its mission to bring the message to the people of today. Who are the prophets now? Who is listening to them?