Elucidations

  Why so many faiths? I come across people who believe in God but will not sign up to a religion either due to the hypocrisy they read of or to confusion about which of many religions is most credible. People today are more aware of the variety of faiths across the world than their parents or grandparents through the revolution in global communications over the last half century. With so many faiths to choose from, they rightly ask, how do you decide which one is right? Elucidating, shedding light on the variety of faiths, risks being patronising towards faiths I have not known from the inside. I am impelled to do so by a conviction that the instinct for meaning, and hence religion, is in every human heart. This surely is why our species is called ‘homo sapiens’, translated ‘man who is wise’. I sense God’s love and holiness at work in believers from other faiths than my own, let alone unbelievers, and see how they contribute to the common good of society. They do so by upholding values

  The coronavirus pandemic has been a repressing force like a brake or imprisoning ball and chain. Barred from leaving home without necessity we felt like caged hamsters on the wheel of a routine going round and round looking forward to release from both cage and wheel. The pain of our isolation was amplified by the suffering and deaths of family and friends we kept distance from following unassailable yet heartbreaking logic. In a pandemic we cannot do what we want to do for our sake and for the sake of others. Societies that accept, or have to accept, heavy regulation from government have accommodated better to this than open societies where restricting freedom to do as you like seems alien. Stepping away from people on the pavement is now ingrained and lack of intimacy with others is having widespread effect on mental health. It is a painful scenario at the time of writing although vaccinations bring hope of reducing the pain of coronavirus to something like the annual onslaught of