TODAY we find ourselves in National Inclusion Week which started in 2013 when the Inclusive Employers organisation in the UK decided it was time to draw more attention to the topic of inclusion and diversity.

It saddens me that such a week should be necessary, but anything that challenges us to rethink any behaviour which excludes people solely because they are different from us has to be good.

I admit to being drawn to people who think as I do as there’s a natural affinity that gets our relationship off to a good start. Over time I become able to take an interest in the ways they differ from me, because I value their friendship certainly, but mainly because their differences enlarge my world. If they were exactly like me, they wouldn’t add anything to who I am.

It’s good that people are different because life would be boring if we were all the same. But, if I’m totally honest, I am sometimes guilty of avoiding people who I feel have absolutely nothing in common with me, even though I have experienced that soul destroying feeling of being excluded in the past. As a Christian I really have no excuse for such insensitive behaviour.

Sometimes within the church we invite people to “come and join us” which seems pleasant enough, but it can be interpreted to mean “come and be like us”. Following Jesus, who sent his first disciples out to share his love with others, perhaps I should be going where people who are very different from me are, instead of asking them to come to where I am. Inviting people to join in me in my safe space is the easy option because it requires very little effort from me.

Part of my reluctance to socialise in unfamiliar places is because I’m unsure of my capabilities, but reminding myself that Jesus’ first disciples were a motley group of generally uneducated ex-fishermen and ex-taxmen should encourage me to be more inclusive because, 2,000 years later, there are 2.38 billion Christians worldwide.

Brenda Tregenza

Mount Charles Methodist Church