Day 27

 It as William Temple who said that God’s Spirit works most effectively in small and intimate groups; and I believe that most of our misunderstandings and lack of fellowship within the Church are brought about because we do not provide ourselves with opportunities deeply to share with one another the life of God.

Lastly, we all know that we need each other, and for many reasons.  To be human means to be limited, and it is only in fellowship that our limitations are completed by the capacities of others.  We gather in humility because we need each other, and because we receive life from each other.  “For if it is true that the members of the Body need each other, then it is alos true that the life of isolation means that the members are weakened, undernourished, impoverished, that they run the risk of withering.”  We come into fellowship, and then receive far more than we ever give.  Because each one of us is limited, no one can himself grow up into a perfect man; only co-operatively combining our virtues do we move toward perfection.  So one man’s enthusiasm is completed by the others wisdom, and one man’s scholarship by the practical sense of another.  We receive significance, our power, and our completion from our fellowship.

Because this is a big world and a big country the Word of God becomes articulate only thorugh the Body of the Church.  You along cannot influence your community, and your parish alone influence the country or the Episcopal Church alone influence the world…

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