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One of Caravaggio’s most stunning paintings is the conversion of St Paul. I saw the masterpiece in Rome last week. It depicts Paul, on the way to Damascus, thrown from his horse and struck by a flash of light. This was the moment that changed Paul’s life, suddenly and dramatically inspired to be a follower of Christ. The church feast of Paul’s conversion is marked tomorrow and is always the final day of the annual week of Christian unity. This year the theme of unity week is hospitality, chosen by the churches of Malta. It is particularly apt that Malta should be involved. For Paul, who travelled across the ancient world and wrote letters to Corinthians, Colossians, Hebrews and others was shipwrecked on the island of Malta. The author of the book of the Acts of the Apostles describes the shipwreck. He wrote: Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.” That description of hospitality as unusual kindness is something that Christians need to listen to with humility. Over the centuries many have failed to show kindness, whether to one another in different denominations or to people of other faiths, whom they have viewed with suspicion. Today, though, what are called ecumenical relations between fellow Christians have much improved. Differences remain but by and large there is respect. Now, Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, are urging Christians to work together to serve others: something they call practical ecumenism. And among those they call on Christians to serve are the refugees, caught up in the conflicts that have led to the Mediterranean being a sea of stranded travellers once more. Like Paul, people are arriving on Malta, other Mediterranean islands and the European mainland. They too, like Paul, are in need of hospitality. As Pope Francis said on Wednesday, after the violence of the ocean, people need others who practise the culture of welcome. This theme of hospitality for Christian unity week seems particularly appropriate, not only because of the contemporary refugee crisis but because we are currently remembering the Holocaust. While so many Jewish people died under Nazism, some children were saved by the Kindertransport rescue programme just before the outbreak of war. It was an extraordinary movement of hospitality – and it could be described as acts of unusual kindness. Today there are others requiring similar compassion as they flee conflict. Could there come a time when that compassion might no longer be unusual kindness but might be the norm?