Welcome to the blog, specifically the Gesher blog which aims to give you a glimpse into the future by previewing some of the contributions we have received for this year's edition.

Editing of the 2021 edition of Gesher is well under way. Following the catastrophic events of 2020, which continue to impact us in 2021, the theme for this year’s Gesher is “Hope: Beyond Wishing.” Amid calamities of public health, economies, nature, climate and personal lives, the editorial team believes that our faith traditions have rich resources offering and sustaining real hope in these difficult times.

In this year, whilst the world is still fearful of Covid, Climate Change and Religious Extremism, where is the chink of light that will gives us any hope for a bright and healthy future?

For many years, decades in fact, we have been warned about the calamity that we all face from climate changes that will create real and dangerous temperature rises. We know the effects because they are occurring already. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent: more intense bush fires, storms and floods. Insect numbers are reduced in many areas by over 60-70%. Bee numbers in some parts of the world are so low that the normal pollination process is severely affected. This is affecting crop and plant growth and future food supplies.

Before the influx of pilgrims meant rearrangements of the traditional way to enter the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostella, those who had completed the Camino de Santiago entered by the Eastern door and left via the West door. In the same way they had walked across Spain from east to west, so too did they enter and leave the cathedral. Turn around as you leave this great Western door and you will see carved into the stonework a massive representation of the Cross of St James, and yet this time the traditional symbols of Alpha and Omega have been reversed. Omega then Alpha. With the months involved in carving this work, it is extremely unlikely that this was a stonemason’s mistake.

Hope is a universal human experience. It is an attitude of mind and heart by which people anticipate the future and are better able to live in the present, especially if that is a difficult time. Hope depends for its credibility on confidence that the goal anticipated can be achieved. The current pandemic is testing our hope for a return to the freedom of movement, near and far, that we enjoyed before its arrival. How miserable would our world become if our hopes prove fruitless?