ONLY A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany.

On Epiphany our thoughts travel with mysterious wise men from the east who follow a star that leads them to where the Christ was born.

Epiphany means a revelation, a showing, a manifestation.

God shows that his Christ is not just for the Jewish people but for all nations - the light that shines from the crib is global light and the glory revealed is for an expansion of God’s purposes through the nations of the world.

Something new is opening up, new human vistas of divine horizons.

The more we seek the edge of the horizon the further it expands and eludes us.

There are no borders or controls to this God’s glory.

Against the backdrop of this revelation of God in Jesus we are living through a period of extraordinary narrow vision, where borders are being reclaimed and nationalism reasserted.

We saw this in the Brexit decision (sorry every statement must now mention Brexit) and we are seeing the same in the USA.

By the time you read this there will be a President Trump and I don’t need to rehearse what his nationalism looks like.

It seems to me that Christians of the Epiphany experience will have to search their hearts and minds more carefully over the next years and decades.

Against the backdrop of what will inevitably be negative consequences of nationalism, I don’t mean patriotism by the way, we may all be called upon to have a more vocal and visible witness to God’s glory in the world that transcends borders and demands that we be active citizens of a different model of Kingdom.

FR LEONARD DOOLAN

Vicar of Cirencester