Dear Friends
Blessed are those who make peace, for they will be called God’s children. … Strive eagerly to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [Matthew 5:9; Ephesians 4:3]
Every so often an industrial dispute hits the headlines and we in Coventry have even made the 6 o’clock news with the current bin lorry drivers’ dispute over pay and conditions. I don’t intend on writing about the rights and wrongs of each side but I do wish that someone would suggest arbitration as a way forward if it already hasn’t been tried.
Having had training in mediation and arbitration through Bridgebuilders, I know how hard the conciliation process can be when you are dealing with two implacably opposed sides, each entrenched in their own particular viewpoint and determined that they will not give ground on anything.
But I also know how satisfying it is to succeed in bringing warring parties together until common ground is eventually found (and it can take quite some time) and an agreement reached. For those involved in industrial mediation and arbitration I think they must have special gifts and make an invaluable contribution to us all.
Few of us will ever be involved in such high-powered negotiations as are required in Coventry at the moment, but we can all be mediators, helping to work in some small way for peace. We do need to do so sensitively, of course, for it is not for us to assume that we have all the answers, but there are times when we can be peacemakers, pouring oil on troubled waters, helping people to see the other side of an argument or defusing a tense situation through a well-chosen word or action. In short, we too should work towards reconciliation.
Do that – humbly, responsibly and lovingly – and we will truly be called God’s children, helping to build God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, more than we may ever realise.
God bless,
Yvonne