All Saints Church – King’s Lynn

It is a strange thing that sometimes groups which begin by representing the interests of others often end up by alientating the very people they set out to represent. This is partly due to some self-opinionated members taking the lead, and riding their own ‘hobby horses’, and partly because of a failure to listen to what is being said. At best the group loses its impetus and purpose, often disbanding, and at most does a great deal of harm lambasting those individuals and ‘bodies’ it considers who are failing the community.

Jesus was often criticised by the Pharisees who took it upon themselves to represent the interests of the community. No doubt they did represent the interests of some, although their zealousness made their protestations and their whole approach probably unacceptable to the majority.

In the town in which I live, there are those who write articulate letters to the newspaper, complaining about Council policy, the state of cleanliness of the local hospital, issues about parking, problems with this and problems with that. I wonder whether, and to what extent, the act of complaining really gets things done? It certainly makes people unpopular !

The church has never tried to be a community of perfect people(you only need read the Letters of St. Paul to work that one out!), although there are those who blame Christians for the failures in society and for their indifference to the needs of individuals and communities. The other day I read an article in which the writer tried to claim that the church had lost its’ place at the centre of the community. Well, it didn’t upset me because the statement is true in a way and not in another – the church is a community of believers drawn from a community of people, simply that, and inevitably many of the benevolent and charitable works it exercised have been taken over long ago by other agencies.

The therapist Virginia Satir identifies types of behaviour in people and ‘the blamer’ is the one who is always accusing someone.The curious thing is, that ‘blamers’ don’t usually want answers, even if they are offered, they are more concerned with their own feelings of superiority and ‘throwing their weight around’. Admittedly, we can all adopt this stance from time to time, but their are those who seem to want to make a career of making other people miserable through their accusations.

Perhaps those who are ready to apportion blame should take care that the good they attempt to do isn’t eclipsed by the harm which may result in being overly critical. As a friend pointed out to me, the roots of communities go very deep, and all too often those who rise to defend those interests have been around for too short a time to understand the implications or the complexity of the social history which belies them.