THROUGHOUT the country people of all faiths and none come together to rejoice in things they have in common.

Around us we see evidences of increasing ethnic strife and hatred. Honest people search for answers to life’s greatest questions “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?”

Religion can shoulder greater responsibility in healing the world’s spiritual sickness. This poem offers guidance and hope.

We Are All More Human Than Otherwise by Richard S. Gilbert (Unitarian) The human race is a vast rainbow, white, black, red, yellow, and brown bursting into view.

Yet for all, blood is red,

the sky is blue,

the earth brown,

the night dark.

In size and shape we are a varied pattern of tall and short,

slim and stout,

elegant and plain.

Yet for all there are fingers to touch,

hearts to break,

eyes to cry,

ears to hear,

mouths to speak.

In tongue we are a tower of Babel,

a great jumble of voices grasping for words, groping for ways to say love, peace, pity, and hope.

Faiths compete, claiming the one way; saviours abound, pointing to salvation.

Not all can be right, not one.

We are united only by our urge to search.

Boundaries divide us, lines drawn to mark our diversity,

maps charted to separate the human race from itself.

Yet a mother’s grief,

a father’s love,

a child’s happy cry,

a musician’s sound,

an artist’s stroke,

batter the boundaries and shatter the walls.

Strength and weakness,

arrogance and humility,

confidence and fear

live together in each one,

reminding us that we share a common humanity.

We are all more human than otherwise.

Thee lift me, I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascend together eternally. (Quaker proverb)

Cedric Knipe Altrincham Interfaith Group http://www.altrincham-interfaith.org.uk/