December 25th, 2006
Open House in the Orkneys with Fellowship member Rev. Alec Renshaw
It was Dorothy Day the founder of the Catholic workers movement who said,
“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”.
As Christians we have an obligation and a challenge, to try to bring about this “revolution of the heart” to our multi faceted, complicated society.
As Dorothy Day states this revolution by its very nature has to start with the individual. As Christians our response to this challenge does not have to be complicated, on the contrary it is the simple Love and hospitality of our Lord, Jesus.
The way we as a family try to live out this challenge, is to offer the radical hospitality of Jesus, that is so clearly seen in the Gospels. I suppose an example of this was our Christmas Open House this Christmas.
The concept was simple, to literally Open our doors to all over the Christmas period, it is always good to remember that if it was not for the inn keeper our Lord would have been born in the gutter.
Here one must admit that in practical terms, it was not that simple, getting up at 4.30am for me is somewhat of a challenge, especially to fight with a 35lb turkey and running around borrowing chairs from friends and family on Christmas morning was a bit of a pain. The practical problems aside, all went well, we had over thirty five people visit over the period and a good time, as they say, was had by all..
The amazing thing however, was not the fact we had opened our doors, but how it has inspired people from all over Scotland to open their hearts. We received donations, letters and cards from all corners of Scotland.
Maybe then the “revolution of the heart”, one heart at a time is possible, let us hope and pray that it is, but more than that, let us start with a “revolution of our hearts”
Rev Alec Renshaw - Fellowship Member
