Letter from Clare

I have just returned from the first 2 days of a 4 day course on “Conflict Management”, you night well wonder why I should go on such a course, what conflict do I encounter here. If I am honest not much, and certainly not as much as some of my fellow clergy, from the stories that were told. I am very fortunate. When I signed up for the course, I think I did so, with a negative mindset, that conflict was always a bad thing, but I’ve come away with rather more to think about.

Some quotes to share with you, to set you thinking too!

From Walt Whitman:

“ Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you and stood aside for you? Have you not learned from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you”?

Or from an international perspective, from China

“ If you have not fought each other you do not know each other”

From South Africa

“ The bitter heart eats its owner”

From Somalia

“ To agree to have a dialogue is the beginning of a peaceful resolution”

From Brazil

“ Slowly you get very far”

I have been challenged to think about how I may be part of the problem as well as of the solution, and old truths have been re-asserted that “blaming others is counterproductive”; that “to resolve conflicts we need to go below the surface” and that if we see every conflict as a nail, we will always hit it with a hammer, we need to be challenged to be more creative and resourceful in our dealings, rather than resort to bullying tactics. All of which may sound removed from our quiet rural existence, but for every saying I could think of a story, a person or a group of people, whose lives I had been involved with in just the last few months. Conflict is something we don’t like admitting to, but it is part of being human, and without it, there would never be progress.

The Easter story is one of conflict, writ large, conflict out of which arose new life, forgiveness, peace and freedom, to which we owe our faith, and from which we can draw many lessons and inspiration as we daily learn to live alongside one another. It is not an old story, but an eternally true story, for every age, and for every person.

A very Happy Easter to you all.

Clare Sanders