The Rector writes...
How a cheery 'hello' binds us together
The Church publishes this magazine each month and a Parish Guide which lists every commercial and social activity, because we believe that if everyone in this village talked to one another, used local trades people and shops and generally got to recognise one another in the street, we would make this a good place to live. By and large this hope has been fulfilled: people have literally come here from all over the world and we have built a helpful community, and the Church Council is grateful to all those who have joined in this village-wide project.
But the task is never finished; we have to recognise that people constantly come and go, there are always houses up for sale, maybe in your street as I write. So there is always the need to build new people into the community, and give them an experience of the care we need to have for one another. New people arrive here principally in two ways - by birth and by moving in. Young people are new people, and it is very necessary to let them know that we are both sharing the same space.
I was horrified recently to see an elderly man and a youngster, both out of Hill Top, pass one another without so much as a glance or 'hello'. There really is no excuse for not knowing the children and young people in your street - for their benefit and our own. I hear people say, ' I don't recognise people like I used to'. The answer is to speak to them; to say hello and then they will become recognisable. It is easy to demonise people and to think them hostile through our own neglect, when they have grown up amongst us.
Unfortunately, there has been a spate of burglaries recently, and it sets me wondering if we are allowing unfamiliar people to pass unnoticed on the street. We need to remember all the community building processes we constantly engaged in during the 60's, 70's and 80's, and continue our acts of outgoing friendliness, because new people are arriving all the time. Anti social acts usually happen when the perpetrator feels that no one will know or recognise them.
A cheery 'hello' binds us together for good and will make this a happy place to live in.