Cassie

I have been just finished a really interesting and challenging book which looks at the issue of diversity and multi - culturalism within the context of the local church and the extended body of Christ. The book uses the term ‘gracism’ as a means of defining unmerited favour upon those who operate culturally, ethnically, economically or socially on the fringes of society. David Anderson says…’the one who hears, sees and pays attention to those on the margins - those in the desert - is a ‘gracist’. This book proved wonderfully challenging as it can only take root in your heart once you begin to practise gracism in real life….thus I would like to introduce to you, Cassie.

Cassie is a young girl I met and had the privilege of getting to know whilst I’ve been in Portsmouth, working with a Music Mentoring project called Hope Academy. Cassie was born with down syndrome which means in the context of what we were doing as group on performing artists, it was hard for her to join in and fit in amongst the others kids…she was certainly on the fringes. As I read the book I was challenged as to how I could ‘build a bridge’ of positive inclusion and friendship with Cassie…this was certainly a great learning experience for me. As we grew in friendship I began to include her in her the musical things I was doing… she found seeming enjoyment and pleasure in watching me play the drums and sing songs on the guitar. I too was able to share in the things she was as she demonstrated a few moves that she had learnt on the dance team, and as she wore her black and gold costume with pride.

It’s not easy to extend favour and make a conscious effort to build a friendship with someone like Cassie, when it would be much easier too simply ignore, but I believe to reach out to those who are isolated and ignored is to follow the example of Christ. Even though she persisted in calling me ‘Holly’ all week instead of Oli, and did many things which I found to be quite strange and a little annoying, I know she was just trying to extend friendship, kindness and affection in the best way she could…and because of this I tried my best to do the same.

In 1 Corinthians 12 it says that as Christians we are all members of the body of Christ and we are all placed in a certain position for a certain reason. It says that those parts that ‘seem to be weaker are in fact ‘indispensable’ and the parts that we think are less honourable we should treat with ‘special honour’. It was amazing to stand alongside Cassie and say to myself... ‘I will share myself with you, I will honour you, I will stand by you, I will consider you, I will celebrate with you, and I will suffer with you.’ I pray for more of these privileged encounters.