This message from our Chairman, Rev Douglas (Doug) Boake, was published in our annual report. We think it’s worth a second look.

The world’s Governments, businesses, families and individuals have huge issues to overcome and challenges ahead – financial, work, unemployment, hunger and health. At the same time, we all have to look deeper into the society we have created and live in and the very purpose of life itself.

No doubt we have all had ample time in these past few months to look at life from a different perspective. It has felt unreal going on a journey without knowing how long it will take, where it will lead us or where we will finally end up. The world as we knew it has changed forever – hopefully for the better.

Henri J M Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest who shared his life with people with mental disabilities as pastor of the L’Arche Daybreak Community, Toronto, Canada, wrote in his book Bread for the Journey:

“What truly counts is not the length of our lives but their quality. Jesus was in his early thirties when he was killed; St Therese of Lisieux in her twenties when she died. Anne Frank was a teenager when she lost her life. But their short lives continue to bear fruits long after their deaths.

That is what our life in community is all about. Each of us is like a little stone in a mosaic. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.”

That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world.