New Ecumenical Space

Abstract

There is an ancient story told about a very wise old man who wanted to go down to the river to pray and to meditate. His disci ples helped him on to the riverbank and settled him under a tree in the shade. So he began his meditation and after a while he noticed that a scorpion had been swept into the river and was des perately trying to cling to a branch, which jutted out into the water. The old man picked up a stick, leaned forward and tried to help the scorpion to get back on to land. But each time he tried to help the creature it tried to sting him. Eventually it did sting him, and then he tried again to help it and it stung him again. Just at that moment his disciples came back, saw what was happening and lifted the old man to safety and got him help. One of the young disciples then said to him, 'What did you think you were doing? That scorpion could have killed you.' The old man looked at the young man intently and said: 'Why should I give up my nature which is to care and to save, because it is the scorpion's nature to sting?' The old man is an icon for me of my hope for the new millen nium. Here is a man who has some sense of who is he is, who is confident and positive about his identity. Perhaps most impor tantly he is willing and able to maintain his integrity and his for bearance in the face of extreme threat and danger, being willing to risk death rather than to compromise what he experiences of his nature. He seems to me to be a man at home in his own skin and very secure. And he is a man who prays, a man who gives time to and is in touch with the cosmic dimension of his being and with God who holds the whole cosmos in being. There is a strong sense of connectedness and space about him connectedness with him self, with the natural world and with God and space for the other, even a threatening other.