Bishop Julie: 'summer of sunshine and storms ...'

The Bishop of Birkenhead, Julie Conalty has issued this statement on behalf of churches across Wirral, speaking out against rioting and racism.

It has been a summer of sunshine and storms.

On the one hand, gold medals at the Olympics … human beings at their fittest and finest, from around the world, coming together and competing on a global stage in an event based on the values of encouraging people to be the best they can be, preserving human dignity, celebrating friendship, and developing harmony.

On the other, human beings at their ugliest, with the senseless loss of life from an attack on a group of children just up the road in Southport, being used as an excuse for acts of rioting and violence across the country.

 And yet, in the darkness, in the death, in the destruction we have seen kindness and goodness overcoming and communities working together to rebuild in the aftermath of riots and people of all faiths coming together in solidarity – saying that is not the way we behave, that is not we believe, the people doing this do not represent us or our values.

 If we turn to the Bible to find guidance on how to live as a community, we find that there is nothing new about division based on ethnicity or colour or culture. But the Christian message is the same and simple - God loves each one of us. Racism is unacceptable in all its forms.

The call of God is consistently for the Church to be a place of welcome and sanctuary for those who have to leave their homes and loved ones for reasons of safety or desperate need. 

 As Leviticus 19:33-34 makes plain: “Don’t take advantage of any stranger who lives in your land. You must treat the outsider as one of your native-born people—as a full citizen—and you are to love hitm in the same way you love yourself….. .” (The Voice translation)

The Church on the Wirral, lovingly and unshakeably lives out these plain truths and we come together to speak out against racism and rioting. Anti-social behaviour and violence is never acceptable and has no place in the society that we want to see.

Many of our churches are made up of people from different nations and are enriched and blessed by their gifts and contributions. This Wirral-wide Church is a picture of Heaven, which the Bible teaches will be populated with people from every nation, tribe and tongue.

The Olympic ideals of developing harmony and preserving human dignity are important not just for the Games but also for our day to day lives. There is more that unites us than divides us. And so, we come together to continue to pray for the families of Alice, Bebe and Emily and those caught up in the Southport incident.  And for an end to division and violence, that the peace of God will be known across the Wirral in our unity, as across the whole nation also.

The Rt Rev'd Julie Conalty, Bishop of Birkenhead (Chair of Together Wirral Churches Forum)