Churches as facilitators of visits to homes

The European Community needs better press and media coverage. People need to know more about each other, not just about politics and economics, but more about values and lives as they are lived out by ordinary people in ordinary homes and jobs all over Europe.

Many people in Europe travel to other European countries for their holidays, whether that is a beach holiday with the kids or a cultural holiday with more sightseeing. What would be real fun and a valuable lesson  for both the host and the visitor alike able to  would be to visit the homes of real people in the foreign country and hear about their thoughts and feelings, their traditions,  in short their reality, and share with them your interests,  values, ways of life and so on.

Churches should do more to make such visits possible. Just as you can swop homes, cars, bicycles, so should or could churches facilitate visits to homes and families, for a day, or just an afternoon or evening, where conversations  can take people anywhere, but are all likely to build relationship and mutual understanding at the levels where these things matter. High level politics are important and extremely necessary, but so is also the contact and respect for the ordinary lives that we all lead, the way we even practice our religion.

Information and enlightenment at this level can help to remove the ridicule of and disrespect for one another.  The EU is not just a political organization, it is most of all an organization that builds on our common origins and beliefs, and supports our understanding of our common past and our immensely important future TOGETHER. That is why there are still countries that are knocking on the EU door to be let in to the values and ways of our lives. We are all interdependent, and so we should work towards building the European house and family stronger and better.

Hanna Broadbridge