Our Common Wealth

 Monday is Commonwealth Day.  Perhaps it’s not one we take much notice of.

A few years ago I was invited by a member of AFC to accompany her to the Commonwealth Day Observance at Westminster Abbey.  It was a thrilling and vibrant occasion full of wonderfully eclectic music and stirring words held in an ancient place yet feeling deeply contemporary and relevant.

I suspect, in the minds of many, the Commonwealth is viewed as nothing more than the British Empire morphed.  Yet that was never its intention.

The ‘modern’ Commonwealth was established two years after Indian Independence in 1949.  Today it has 56-member nations; the most recent to join, Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo have no historical ties to Britain whatsoever.

One third of the world’s population belongs to the Commonwealth, with 32 of the worlds 42 smallest states (that is a country of 1.5million or less) as members.

With so many challenges in the world the Commonwealth, behind the scenes, does much to strengthen democracies, help with the oversight of elections, provide a sharing of good practice in civil and criminal justice and foster trading opportunities.

So often in the bible the ‘state’ is spoken of with fear and trepidation.  Rulers in that Ancient Near Eastern World were rarely democratically accountable with most people were ‘stuck’ in a social position predetermined at birth.

The world has moved on, all be it at a stuttering pace and unequally, since the days of Jesus. 

Commonwealth Day is one when we can give thanks for much that is good, whilst praying (in our own way) for a deeper sense of what belonging together amongst the nations might mean. 

International relations will forever be complex, history has taught us that much.  But it also teaches us never to give up on the ideals and hopes that can draw us together in peace – for surely that is, in essence our Common Wealth