Our Neighbourhood is our Church
This article originally appeared in Faith Today.
“I’m going down the street,” I said to my six-year-old girl as I slipped on my boots and went for the front door. We had been talking about our neighbours and wondering how they were getting on in the opening days of the COVID-19 virus as it hit our community. We had made up little encouragement cards for our neighbours with reminders of our contact numbers in case they needed anything.
I was off to slide them into the doors of a dozen neighbours, some who we see at our block parties and at the mailbox, some less so.
I remember as a boy – along with a scruffy group of other kids – all the ways we intruded on our neighbours. We could knock on a door and be warmly welcomed in, snacks would be shared, and we would recount all our epic adventures catching bugs and building forts. Neighbours were like aunties and uncles. They always seemed to have time for each other. To linger, laugh and gossip was the ordinary fare of teenagers on my street.
We were never too busy being busy and never too removed to be unknown.”
