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SUMMARY:Holy Communion and Junior Church
DTSTART:20250518T090000Z
DTEND:20250518T101500Z
DTSTAMP:20260419T041026Z
UID:11993602025-05-18 09:00:00+00:00achurchnearyou
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Holy Communion for the Fifth Sunday of Easter: celebrant the R
 evd Tola Badejo.  Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.\
 n\nFirst reading: Acts 11. 1–18\nGospel: John 13. 31–35\n\nThe theme o
 f today's readings is the potentially controversial topic of diversity\, e
 quity and inclusion\, illustrated in Acts 11 by one of the strangest metap
 hors in the Bible.  There is an argument amongst the disciples about the n
 ature of the church\, and Peter has been criticised for meeting with the '
 unclean'\; those outside the Jewish community. Peter explains his actions 
 by describing a dream: he (and his listeners) had grown up in the Jewish t
 radition\, with strict dietary laws to separate the 'clean' animals that c
 ould be eaten from the 'unclean'\,  but in the dream Peter hears a voice t
 elling him to 'kill and eat' animals of all kinds. The violent language co
 nveys the shock of this radical new idea: God is not the God of one specif
 ic race\, but of everybody. \n\nThe detail above is from a painting by Dom
 enico Fetti (c.1589 – 1623\; the whole picture is attached below)\, in w
 hich the animals Peter sees invite compassion rather than slaughter (espec
 ially the dog\, who just seems to want someone to belong to). In effect\, 
 the artist has cut from the language of the metaphor to its substance\, th
 e point it is there to make. When\, in the Gospel\, Jesus commands his fol
 lowers to love one another\, he does not limit the instruction to any race
 \, class\, culture or level of education.
GEO:0.037423;51.469833
LOCATION:Kidbrooke\, St Nicholas
URL:https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/671/service-and-events/events/11
 99360/
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