Christian Comment with Phil Coysh, Director of Christian event charity, Ignition Gloucestershire

I AM writing this after an Ignition planning meeting for 2017’s Family Fun Day on May 21, in Stratford Park.

Following last year’s topic “I am loved”, we agreed on the theme “I am needed”.

We live in a world which seems to be more divided than ever, where globalism is dying on a bed of unbridled capitalism and nationalism and where religious fanaticism shows no sign of abating.

To use the current buzz word we need to become more inter-connected – and not just through social media!

We need to recognise the value of ‘the other’ – those that see the world different to us and who we profoundly disagree with – and seek to ‘inter-connect’ with them, not on the basis of agreement or compromise, but simply on the basis of mutual respect and need of each other.

I am a follower of Jesus who believed in the value of each individual and that each person was a vital piece of the jigsaw of the world.

Writer and theologian Brian McLaren puts it like this: “Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonise the other, intimidate the other, demonise the other, or marginalise the other. He incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, even lays down his life for the other.”

Jesus actually spent most of his time with those he fundamentally disagreed with – and he even enjoyed their company!

This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, when Christians come together to pray for unity across the Christian churches.

But it’s not just the occasional united prayer service which will bring Christian unity; it’s a recognition that each church, each denomination, each individual member, each ‘other’ has value.

No matter how much I might disagree about a particular belief I need to recognise that the ‘other’ is loved, valued and needed as much as I am.

The message the churches will be declaring at the Family Fun Day is that everyone – and that includes you! – is needed; that without you, there is part of the jigsaw missing.