25/04/2026
Yesterday, we had the privilege of spending time with Revd Morrison and Revd Dignity Takaendesa, who are visiting the East Anglia District on an exchange programme, in the company of Revd Nick Whitman, Revd Nicola Vidamour and Revd Kevin Highfield.
The day offered a rich tapestry of encounter, reflection and shared fellowship, each moment illuminating the Methodist commitment to Justice, Dignity and Solidarity.
Our morning began at Leys School in Cambridge, where we were warmly welcomed. I had the opportunity to explore themes of justice and belonging with a Year 9 class. Their attentiveness, discipline and intellectual curiosity were striking.
Their attentiveness demonstrated that young people do not require simplified truths or diminished expectations.
It brought into focus the quiet, often unexamined habit of speaking down to them, “adultism” which has no place in any community committed to honouring dignity.
When trusted with complexity, they rise to meet it. The classroom became a space where the “imago Dei”was honoured, where questions were not feared, and where every voice carried weight. It was a reminder that the work of justice is always intergenerational.
From there, we visited St John’s College and Wesley Chapel, sites that hold memory, witness and the quiet weight of Methodist history.
These spaces invite reflection on how faith is shaped, contested and renewed across time.
They also call us to consider the responsibilities that accompany inheritance, particularly as the Methodist Church continues its journey towards becoming a community where equality and belonging are not aspirations but lived realities.
Our day concluded at Royston Methodist Church, where we shared a meal prepared th great care. The hospitality extended to us was generous and sincere. The food was excellent, but it was the love woven into its preparation that transformed the meal into fellowship. Hospitality, when offered with such joy, becomes a form of solidarity. It creates space for mutual recognition and shared humanity, even across cultural and ecclesial difference.
Throughout the day, the truth of Genesis 1:27 resonated deeply: “So God created humankind in his image.” This foundational affirmation calls the Church to recognise the dignity of every person and to resist all that diminishes or divides. It is a truth that demands continual conversion, inviting us to see one another as God sees us.
I recalled my grandmother’s wisdom: that you know a people not only by what they say, but by how they make space for others to sit, to eat and to belong. Her words offer a theological lens through which to understand hospitality as a practice of justice.
The day was fruitful. Not because every question was answered, but because something was opened. We were reminded that justice, dignity and solidarity are not distant ideals. They are lived, shared and tasted in the everyday. They remain the work of a Church that is still learning, still listening and still seeking to walk faithfully with God and with one another.
© 2026 Reverend Charity Tozivepi‑Nzegwu. All rights reserved.
