Something remarkable is happening - I dare to hope. I have just returned from a rain-soaked gathering on a Cockermouth car park. 100 or so people, braving the weather, because one local resident decided that something should happen right here to commemorate Jo Cox and to affirm all that she stood for. So there we were: several people I recognised from local churches, and many I didn't (including the originator of the idea, Sophia). Sue Hayman, our MP was there. We had prayed for her specifically in church this morning, as a friend and colleague of Jo, having entered Parliament at the same time and - it seems to me - being cast in the same mould. Gracious, warm, humanitarian, empathetic, a people person. Ironically, she had been at a party on Jo's houseboat just 2 days before that dreadful murder, to celebrate with others their first anniversary in Parliament. We pray for her protection and her resilience. Lord Frank Judd was there. A Labour peer, former Minister for Overseas Development, and a local resident himself. Both Sue and Frank spoke about Jo - her character, her passion for justice and reconciliation, her desire for inter-racial harmony and the well-being of all. You could feel the unanimity, you could sense the common desire for all that is good, noble and true about humanity.
That's why I dare to hope something remarkable is happening. If this kind of gathering - informal, impromptu, quietly determined - is replicated all over the country, then there is hope. Jo said there is more that binds us together than divides us. Her murder is a kind of wake-up call as to what happens when the toxic language of division, suspicion, fear and hate becomes prevalent and people lose their ability to think and act with grace and compassion, courage and desire for a better world instead of thinking only of themselves and people like them.
'Love Wins' is the title of a book by a Christian pastor, Rob Bell. Although he is writing in a different context, it seems an appropriate statement of faith for this present time. I continue to pray for 60:40 at least for 'Remain' on Thursday!
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