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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Sharon Grenham-Thompson

In 1948, in the long shadow of the Second World War, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This milestone document is an attempt to underpin a vision of a connected world, establishing the equal worth and dignity of every human person.

As we mark World Human Rights Day today, we are living under the influence of another long shadow – that of the Covid pandemic. Whilst we may feel that the experiences of 2020 have left some positive marks on us, not least the valuing of those who undertake key roles in society, we are still in the stage of raw wounds.

The pandemic has exposed aspects of our world that we might prefer to ignore – inequality, injustice, prejudice. When people are feeling scared or threatened, when their stability is undermined, the natural reaction is to bring down the shutters, close others out, and defend one’s personal castle. Many of the world’s faiths and philosophies recognise this human tendency and seek to identify a counterpoint – the golden rule of treating others as one would wish to be treated oneself, if not better. The Christian ideal of service, of self-sacrifice, of community before the individual is one such example, rooted in Jesus’ exhortation to love one another.

Before we can do any post-pandemic rebuilding, we need to work out what it is that we are aiming for. The vision set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not a bad place to start, but that vision needs to take root in the soil of our everyday lives.

So Lord may today be the day that we resolve to fling the shutters open wide, actively seeking an opportunity to promote the dignity and worth of another.

Amen.