Alan Cutting from Together for Ipswich talks about the joy of gathering ecumenically and learning across different denominations and traditions.
“Have you heard of the Difference course?”
My colleague Simon and I were on a long drive together, and I was expressing my frustration that despite being involved in a lot of peace building and conflict resolution work around the world, rarely am I offered any opportunities to envision and mobilise churches in the UK – at least beyond the occasional, random, one-off (and therefore somewhat disconnected) invitation to deliver a 15-minute Sunday morning sermon.
I hadn’t heard of Difference, but we liked the look of it, and invited church leaders and activists across Ipswich to join us for the five Monday evenings in March 2025, ‘to explore the transformative journey of following Jesus in a conflicted and divided world’.
Simon and I both serve on the Together for Ipswich Steering Group and love any expression of a united Church as it seeks to walk with and serve its community with intelligence, humility, and compassion – which is why we deliberately hosted the course under the umbrella of Together for Ipswich.
Together for Ipswich exists to provide a communication vehicle between our Civic Authorities and the 80+ Christian churches and charities in the town – seeking to serve our town and wider society. It is therefore, by its very nature, well into ‘ecumenicalism’.
Our group was made up of 13 participants from nine different churches and agencies, and we tussled with issues that would ‘equip people to cross divides, navigate disagreement, practice forgiveness, and pursue a just and flourishing world’ – using scripture, reflection, video, laughter, stories, coffee, prayer, small group work, chocolate biscuits and role play.
The course deliberately doesn’t focus on specific issues, and the words “war,” “race,” “tariffs,” “gender,” and “Trump” were hardly mentioned. But somehow, the pain, the principles, the challenge and the complexity of conflict resolution – be it on the micro level of our own households, churches or work relationships, or on the macro level of global politics and world affairs – were able to be addressed head on.
We chuckled together when one member of the group said, “I’m so glad no one from my church was here!” She followed this up by saying, “No, no – I don’t mean that in a bad way. What I mean is that this course gave me the opportunity to hear new voices, new views, new approaches, and to walk with people who weigh various values differently, all of which has stretched and challenged me so much.”
Peacebuilding and peacekeeping are very different things. The former faces up to the conflicts and works through them, whereas the latter is tempted to sweep issues under the carpet and settle for a conflict-free ‘pseudo-peace’. Shalom-light, usually delivered with a slightly forced smile. Despite being a self-proclaimed ‘man of peace’, I recognise that I can still often settle for a stance of passivity – probably out of fear – at times when I should actually be speaking up for truth, justice and righteousness, without which a deeper peace and genuine reconciliation is not possible.
A personal reflection related to my approach to conflict: I feel I’ve come into a much deeper ‘post-covid awareness’ of just how central and fundamental the world of peacebuilding and reconciliation is in our gospel. Simply put, we have been reconciled to God through Christ, and have been given the ministry, or message, of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
Anyway, what happens now? Well, we are ready to repeat the Difference course in its present form with specific churches (if requested) or to host it again with another group of cross-confessional believers. But we are also interested in contextualising it and offering it as a contribution towards greater social cohesion of our town (through local authorities and other agencies) to help us better understand one another as not better, not worse – just different!
Interested in running the Difference course in your community? Find out more here.
Alan Cutting was a pastor and church-planter for 20 years and now works to envision and equip churches across the world, with a focus on church and community mobilisation, peacebuilding, and reconciliation. He has published four books , heads up the Together for Ipswich Ukraine response, and enjoys international travel, family history, and watching non-league football.
