Sunday, June 8, from midday until 2.30pm, in Bradford’s Bowling Park will witness a “Pentecost Party” featuring some of the diversity of the Area’s churches and Christians. It will take place in “The Beacon”, a touring venue which is part of the 2025 UK City of Culture Programme.
In an echo of the first Pentecost, at which people were heard praising God in languages from around the world, the Party in Bowling Park will bring together singing, testimonies, stories and prayer from, among other places, Nepal, Ghana, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iran.
There is an awful lot of babble around these days, not least coming out of our smartphones. Much of that babble is divisive and ugly, insulting and seeking to set people against one another. We’ve seen how this babble can infect community relations, sour our political discourse and how it even encourages violence on our streets.
The church that burst into life that first Pentecost, at which three thousand people were added to the number of disciples in a single day, instead brought people together. Women and men, slaves and free people, poor and rich, Jews and non-Jews, educated Greek-speakers and ‘barbarians.’ They all met to praise God, to share food together and with the wealthy supporting those who were struggling. A love for Jesus was almost everything that they had in common.
This is our story and our inheritance. Especially when sometimes even the church itself can feel infected by divisive babble on social media, it’s good to be reminded of the Person and the story that brings us together, whether in Bowling Park or any of the multitude of churches that are celebrating Pentecost this year across our wonderful and varied diocese.