This is the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Christ the King 2024. To view the full newsletter, here
The Servant King
John 18:37
Dear Friends
Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter.
The feast of Christ the King draws us into a deep contemplation of Jesus, the faithful witness (Rev. 1.5). He is the witness to the truth of God’s Kingdom, the truth of God as the Creator of all things, and to himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. In a culture such as ours, these claims, especially that Jesus is Truth, come across as outlandish and are often met with indifference, scorn or worse. We are swimming in a sea of relativism where truth is reframed as mere opinion.
This is a period of epochal change, a time between eras, an interregnum. That sounds depressing and frightening, but we are neither panicked nor gloomy. These are great and wonderful days to be alive. Because we know, amidst the confusion, that God is at work. This is a time when we find ourselves in increasing opposition to the world yet called to live abundantly within it.
We see a profound political realignment underway, and a great struggle between competing cultural worldviews. The geopolitical landscape is highly volatile. Inequality is getting worse. Many communities have long since been abandoned and are in a state of degradation.
The powers of capital and state act like the modern Pharaohs of our time. As in Genesis 47, they seek to achieve control through economic methods of centralisation, exploitation, division and domination. Big corporations press further into globalisation, subordinating weak governments which then seek to insulate decision-making from the governed. This collusion between capital and state undermines the common good and provokes increasing discontent. The leadership class cannot comprehend that this so-called populism is the blowback from their own policies.
It may look hopeless, and we may feel powerless. But grace is working. We can look for signs of the Holy Spirit in our neighbourhoods and our local economies – signs of trust, forbearance, forgiveness, covenantal relationships of reciprocity and mutuality. We can join in with this divine energy and build the common good together. This is what keeps us human, and our God-given humanity must be defended. This is a time to speak the truth with courage, to accompany each other, refuse tribalism and build unlikely alliances of mutual respect and loving friendship.
The meaning of Christ the King is sometimes portrayed in a triumphalist manner as an endorsement of temporal power. But in Matthew 11, we discover that the truth of Jesus is that He is not only God, but also one who is “gentle and humble in heart.” As Henri Nouwen believed, it’s in this paradox, of victory alongside humility, that we discover that we must look for the “humiliated and victorious Christ” – especially at this moment – “before the celebration of Advent.”
Pope Francis is gravely concerned about what he calls the “malign culture”, the neoliberal philosophy afflicting our societies. He calls people to act by connecting with each other from the heart, because, he says, “our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters.” In particular, he emphasises the importance of living in solidarity with people who are trapped in poverty. Not in a service provider-client dynamic, but as a way of everyday life in service of each other, through relationships of mutuality to build a sense of family. It is through such encounters of reciprocity that we will open ourselves to the healing heart of Christ, the servant king.
This is our God, The Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to The Servant King
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As ever this edition is packed with resources to help you play your part in civic and spiritual renewal. If you would like to explore our reading of the signs of the times, you will find three talks by me below: the session for EducareM head teachers (but relevant for all) is the most recent and comprehensive; the talk for Salvation Army leaders addresses the relationship between the church and the forgotten places, and there is a short panel input given at an event in Parliament on liberalism and the common good.
New in our Stories collection is a wonderful piece by Sam Williams from Transformation Cornwall about Christian solidarity in a post-industrial Cornish town.
Our transatlantic podcast Leaving Egypt which I co-host with Al Roxburgh is going strong and has produced some brilliant conversations lately, including with David Cayley on Ivan Illich and the corruption of Christianity, Sr Helen Alford on how economics became the theology our age, Colin Miller on personalism and the Catholic Worker tradition and David Widdicombe on forming the parish as a community of hope.
Our Common Good Schools programme is growing and as our project leader Jo Stow reports, we are excited to see our new partner schools being so creative in their neighbourhood relationships, and, that 100% of our schools have signed up for another year.
In the full edition, you will find our latest recommended books and our Signs of the Times collection of articles to help you make sense of the trends during this time of great change. With the Assisted Dying bill fast approaching, you will find a template email below which may be helpful if you have not yet written to your MP.
Some news of our events: later this week we are hosting an invitation-only Advent Retreat for Christian social action leaders: please pray for us. Looking ahead to 2025, our first public event of the year will be a lecture with Professor Luke Bretherton on 19 February.
Lastly, we hope you enjoy reading our 2024 Impact Report: Hope in Uncertain Times. You will see how we draw on Catholic social thought to equip people to play their part. We operate on a shoestring although it might not look like it. We achieve so much only by the grace of God and through many wonderful partnerships. Please pray for us and if you can, consider supporting financially to help this work become sustainable.
Wishing you and your neighbours a blessed Advent
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team
This is just the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Christ the King 2024. To view version click here