home | board | compass | prayer | eCard

[Main Index]

03/26/2003 Entry: "The privilege of sharing a story"

Wood has beaten me to it with his post below -- not that I'm complaining. It was a great privilege to be part of a meeting in the chaplaincy today in which students (in Wood's case, ex-students) shared something of their faith journey. At the end, as Wood says, there was a long silence. I think that was because of the depth at which people had been prepared to share their stories of both brokenness and healing. It was a most moving meeting and I'm certain that those who were there will not look at one another in quite the same way again. If we had invited people to share their understanding we would have had disagreement and probably debate. But sharing stories doesn't lead to debate. The silence that followed the sharing was perfectly natural. It was the silence of compassion, of mutual recognition. There was no more to be said, perhaps because in the sharing we each realised that we are all the same but different, pilgrims together walking the same road.