All One in Christ Jesus

Bible Reading: Mark 9:38-40
Author: William Findlay (Lanarkshire, Scotland)
Thursday 28 March 2024 © The Upper Room.

 I had the privilege of attending two remarkable commemorations some time ago. On 3 August 1913 fire broke out in Cadder No. 15 pit, then part of the Lanarkshire coalfields in Scotland. Twenty-two men lost their lives that day; eleven were Roman Catholic and eleven Protestant. A monument bearing the names of the Catholics was erected two miles west of the pit, and another to the Protestants was erected two miles in the opposite direction. Sadly, neither memorial mentioned the other eleven men.

One hundred years to the day all that changed when a memorial to all 22 miners was unveiled at a local cemetery. The service was led by a Baptist minister and the singing by a Salvation Army band. The following day a second memorial was unveiled outside the local library; this time the service was conducted by a Church of Scotland minister and a Roman Catholic priest. On each occasion large crowds gathered to pay their respects, some of them descendants of the men killed so long ago.

How good it is when Christians of all denominations can join together, regardless of the differences in their observance. How much better it will be when, as Jesus prayed, ‘all of them may be one’.

Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for the Bible and its teachings on fellowship and love. Help us to put it into practice in our own Christian communities. Amen

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