Pyjama Parties are F.A.B!

Pause for Thought

With Rev Sharon Grenham Toze, an Anglican priest and prison chaplain.

Last night the general Synod of the Church of England voted about women bishops. The vote went against women becoming Bishops by a very small margin. I know many women, and men, myself included, who are deeply saddened about the outcome, and it’s hard not to feel a sense of rejection, of not being valued for who I am and what I do. You know, a lot of my time is spent with people who are not churchgoers, in fact who are pretty turned off by the whole religion thing, and they’ve found it hard to understand why on earth this issue has caused as much aggro as it has, and why the decision has gone this way.

I can’t say I really understand it either, and I’m not ashamed to say I cried real tears of pain and frustration last night.

But this morning, like so many other hard-working clergy and church members, I got up and got on with it. Because although it really matters that men and women should be treated as equal in the church, and although I know so many amazing women who’d be brilliant bishops, what matters more is that the sad are comforted, the outsiders are welcomed, the prisoners are visited, the hungry are fed, the unlovely are loved. All those bread and butter things that the church is here for, all the basic things that, as far as I understand it, my faith is all about.

It’s hard for any of us when a long-cherished hoped seems to be dashed at worst, delayed at best. But goodness me, there are so many people across the world this morning who’d be grateful for peace, for safety; people who are longing for a loved one’s return, for a little ray of hope. So, whatever makes us frustrated, or angry today, it’s worth remembering that barriers and resentment are easy to build up, and so very hard to get rid of. That’s why I love this old Chinese proverb about not letting ourselves get closed off from each other:

“If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.”