We have taken a few days off during the week and on Thursday we were in Gret Yarmouth, which was a red-letter day for the town. After years of lobbying, agreement to create a new river crossing was granted in 2018, legal work took longer than expected and work eventually started in January 2020. During the last four years the project has been plagued as these initiatives often are. The pandemic had an impact, and then the excavations revealed an unexploded World War two bomb, which needed to be detonated. The work was further delayed by the discovery of a rare water voles burrow, so there was much rejoicing on Thursday when the £121m bridge was officially opened.
Sadly, we were just too early in the day to get an opportunity to drive across the new bridge and the best we could manage was to see people walking across soon after the official opening had happened and shortly before a cavalcade of vehicles crossed for the first time. We will no doubt return to Great Yarmouth at some point and delight in being able to cross the river with ease, rather than driving up stream to cross Haven Bridge.
I remember years ago going to a Methodist Association of Youth Clubs (MAYC) London Weekend and the theme of the weekend was “Bridge Builders” an experience that suddenly came back to me as I looked at the ne “Herring Bridge” in Great Yarmouth. Surely a core piece of the Church’s work is to be bridge builders, and in a world that appears to be so divided in so many different ways there is a need for bridges of hope to be built. I struggle with the situation in Ukraine and Gaza, and it seems to me that bridges need to be built to put an end to the fighting and the tragic human cost experienced by both sides in conflicts like these.
I believe that the church has a part to play and even if all we are able to do is pray, then we must offer the situation up to God. There may be other, more practical things that we can do, like supporting refugees who flee from war zones to find sanctuary in this country.
Over the centuries the church has endeavoured to build bridges with the community, seeking to serve our neighbours and to help those in the greatest need. We have tried to build bridges with the marginalised and those who find themselves excluded for some reason. We acknowledge the fact that there are a variety of ways to express our understanding of faith, churches split, and new communities are formed. We don’t believe in a different God, and in my view, we are not in competition with one another, and it is imperative that we build bridges between our denominations to be effective bridge builders together.
Finally, bridge building is not just something for the leaders of our Church communities to grapple with, it is our personal responsibility to be bridge builders in our own lives, doing the best we can to overcome barriers that divide us. Why not reflect for a few moments on what are the issues you need to overcome now and what bridges need to be built in your life.