I’ve read entries in one church register from the 1880s recording multiple burials over several weeks from yellow fever. Another church register in the 1980s shows multiple burials over several months from AIDS. I’ve read letters from priests and bishops expressing concern about pending schisms over theological differences that could have been written yesterday or a thousand years ago.
Reading the concerns and hopes of faith communities from across the ages reminds me how little has changed for us. The particulars of the issues may be different, but the sameness of human experience echoes across millennia. We struggle with differences, we feel grief, we strive for hospitality, and we long to contribute. We hope for unity in diversity. And we want to know we are loved by each other and by God.
