I’ve just returned home from Widford’s “Tuesday Teas” event. For the uninitiated, this is a monthly gathering hosted in the Village Hall by community-minded people where drinks and cake are served. It’s been a fixture in the Widford community diary for over 20 years, and I dread to think how much cake has been consumed in that period!
As well as excellent cake, the event provides a great opportunity for [mostly elderly] neighbours to meet one another and share life. There’s often a little second-hand bookstall, and a raffle is always arranged (is it even possible to have an event in Widford without one?), but the heart of the event is to facilitate conversation and friendship. It does this very well – those who organise it now (and those who have organised it over the years) should be thanked wholeheartedly for their efforts. It should be noted that Hunsdon has a similar monthly event on a Tuesday morning, as well as free lunches or brunches every six weeks. Over the last couple of years, Widford Church has also hosted occasional free community lunches – and will do so more in the future.
Events like this are not flashy or even trendy, but they provide a much-valued service to the community. In these individualistic days, safe and accessible spaces where neighbours can spend time with one another (especially without breaking the bank) are a Godsend. They are one simple and effective way of holding back the creeping loneliness that is engulfing so many people in our society.
The charity, Linking Lives, suggests that out of our national population of about 60 million, nearly 4 million would say that their only companion is their television. Their statistics suggest that loneliness increases the risk of death by as much as 26%. Therefore, what a wonderful thing it is when a community hosts events to draw people together – especially events that foster an environment in which people can talk to one another, and importantly, have their own voices heard and their conversational contributions appreciated (the TV may say some extraordinary things, but it is a very poor listener).
The Bible describes God creating human beings “in His image,” one aspect of which is to be relational. He says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” There are questions we could ask about what exactly God meant by this, but one aspect is quite plain to see – loneliness is not good for us. Let us therefore be people who, like God, extend the hand of friendship to others, and who do all we can to support those who are going above and beyond to provide community events to keep loneliness at bay.
May you know the friendship and companionship of God.
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay