麻豆约拍

Good morning.

My ancestors were fisherfolk in Devon, and Glasgow miners and before that, peasant farmers or crofters probably听 pushed off the land by changes in farming听 methods and the need to survive.
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They had hard lives, but my grandparents found living faith, and passed on this life to their children, to their children鈥檚 children. Now some of my expressions of faith would probably bewilder and maybe even cause outrage in my grandparents, I鈥檓 sure. Yet from their vantage-point now, beyond the cultural constraints of their time, I dare to hope they would see in our lives the love of Christ, and the welcome of strangers, the commitment to love enemies, and they would rejoice that we are overcoming the prejudices they had inherited and passed on, traditions that hampered rather than enhancing lives.

And future generations? I have little doubt听 they will relearn the value of old traditions, in the light of their future cultures. Their own prejudices will come full circle, perhaps they will see the virtue in self-control, in prizing faithfulness and duty. Perhaps they will learn the social benefit and justice of making and keeping promises and will rediscover the ancient paths, where their ancestors followed the shepherd to safety.

Author of all life, give us confidence today to live well and love well; to serve you and each other in faithfulness and truth; to challenge injustice and work for freedom, to share all we have with those who have least, and to happily become the least in this world, in order to become great souls in the kingdom which lasts for ever.

Amen听