Dear Inner Circle,
When you celebrate the New Year depends on whether you’re paying attention to the sun, the stars, a religion, a tradition or a balance sheet. Acknowledging the latter and the generous contributions it takes to keep this place running, we stand together at the threshold of another year together, another trip around the sun for Wayside Chapel, only because of who you are and how you stand with us.
There are some ancient languages where the word for life is always a plural. In those languages you can’t say ‘a life’, only ‘lives’ with roots that reach back to family, community and place. So from the very beginning, life is never a solitary thing. Life is community. You cannot have it on your own.
Similarly, the word for death is often its opposite. When the ancient stories say, ‘You will die,’ they usually do not drop dead. They’re driven out, cut off from place and from others. Death here means disconnection. It’s exile from belonging, and it can happen while you’re still breathing.
This connects us — what we do at Wayside has a name thousands of years old. Anyone who comes through our door carrying isolation, exclusion, homelessness is, in the deepest sense, carrying a form of death. What we offer when we welcome them isn’t a service. It’s life.
“Creating a community with no ‘us and them’” turns out to be more than our mission, it is perhaps the oldest idea there is.
“Where you born in a tent mate?” I joked recently with someone who opened our door at Bondi and started a conversation before closing it, the wind whistling in and a chilly breeze ripping through the cosy room. He paused, “Actually, yep, I was and I bet you feel bad now!” It’s nice to say thank you for helping us keep our doors open, but at this time of year, it’s better to say thanks for helping us keep our doors closed, so that the heating inside can do its work of restoration.
Thank you for being part of the Inner Circle,
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel
