Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

10 February 2005

On Saturday I was privileged to attend the Rededication Festival Service at Radnor Park United Reformed Church. This was to celebrate the completion of extensive repairs to the roof and timbers of the Church building – a protracted and expensive exercise supervised selflessly by Alec Perry.

It was a beautiful service – not lease because it gave me the opportunity to sing Cwm Rhondda a full half hour before the start of the Wales v England rugby match!

But I was particularly struck by the sermon from the Provincial Moderator, the Reverend Nigel Uden. He introduced us to a new phrase – or at least one that was new to me. Ubuntu ubuntu ngabantu is a Zulu phrase. It means people are people when they are with other people. Another way of putting it is in the negative – people aren’t people without other people.

Either way it’s certainly food for thought. In fact it seems to sum up an eternal truth. We need to relate to other people. We need a sense of community.

A question that often arises is the nature of the community to which we best relate. The community to which we relate must often is that nearest to us – our village or our neighbourhood if we live in a town or city.

But there needs to be a wider and larger sense of community, too. In an age of uncertainty and danger I think the band of solidarity which is stringent remains the nation state.

That conclusion influences much of my approach to life. It is why I want to bring power back to Britain from Brussels – so we can increase the number of decisions made here in Britain.

This does not, of course, mean that we should be oblivious to the needs of others in far-off parts of the world. I am a firm supporter of the “Make Poverty History” movement and hope that we can see decisive steps taken towards that objective this year.

This brings me to the second inspirational event of my weekend. The Tsunami walk on Sunday morning, organised by Mark White. Sandra and I joined hundreds of local children on a 3 mile walk which was a huge success. Well done, all concerned!