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Lead Kindly Light amidst the encircling gloom, lead thou me on, the night is dark and I am far from home, Lead thou me on! Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene, one-step enough for me.

Surely such words from the poem and subsequent hymn of England’s newest Saint, John Henry Newman, resonate this morning as we begin yet again another week of confusion and dispute about the country’s direction. Hope seems as far away as ever that sharp divisions will somehow be reconciled and cohesion restored. Alas, further polarisation and frustration seem to be as strong as at any point in the last three years.

Saturday’s parliamentary session and the subsequent request to extend the deadline of Article 50 to the 31st January 2020, illustrated the sharp division in our parliament and our country. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of London to call for a second referendum. No one knows how this is going to play out, each is looking to the other for either a prophetic voice to make a call on the future or for someone to provide a historical parallel for what we are living. More words of Newman speak to this desire for such certainty, ‘I loved to choose and see my Path, but now Lead thou me on’.

Within this context where does society look for certainty? How can its divisions be reconciled? Loud voices might be attractive in the immediate, but often with hindsight their volume and cry mask their own uncertainty.

For a believer, the words of Newman, to trust, to believe and to hope, surely appeal. Faith offers something beyond the immediate regardless of how uncertain or dark the period or episode. In my own life, as a student in Belfast I remember Newman’s words as the latest wave of sectarian killings and violence gripped our society. Then had the present simply been the future, we would have all been doomed. But hope provided solace that somehow and in someway, things could change, that the immediate was not the future.

So this morning, amidst the encircling gloom, lead thou me on. Whether one believes in God or not, faith offers a wisdom about the human condition and its desire for certainty, especially when living in uncertain times. Hope emerges from trust, for some a trust in God, for most a trust in each other. That trust and faith in each other is what we call society. And our trust in each other gives us hope that our present does not always have to be the future.

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