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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Carolyn Skinner, CEO of Third Space Ministries

Good morning

Recently I coordinated a team of volunteers who were welcoming the overnight tennis fans at Wimbledon. The atmosphere in Wimbledon Park where they pitch their tents is wonderful and people are in such good spirits as they anticipate a day at the iconic Wimbledon Championships. Our volunteers from local churches head to the queues each evening to offer free gifts, a listening ear and prayer. We call ourselves Love All Serve All, not just because of the tennis pun, but because that’s what we believe Jesus came to do and what we are called to do also. Love comes with service.

In my work at Third Space Ministries we have 6 values which undergird all that we do. I shall be mentioning them this week and the first value is love. Unfortunately, our English language limits us to expressing love in one word. However, in Greek there are different words for love & they vary in their meaning from friendship love, romantic love, family love. But the word used for what Christians consider to be the highest form of love is ‘agape’. This is the word used to describe God’s love. It is immeasurable, unconditional, sacrificial love, filled with action as well as emotion.

The book of 1 Corinthians in the Bible says that ‘Three things will last forever – faith, hope & love – and the greatest of these is love.’ And the word used here for love is Agape.

Loving God, thank you for the way you demonstrated your love to us, through the life of Jesus. Show us in our lives how we can look beyond ourselves to love others in practical ways as we follow your example. Amen