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Good Morning Timothy Spall told the audience at the recent BAFTA TV awards that actors sometimes play people that have had terrible things happen to them. He was named as best actor for his poignant performance in the TV series The Sixth Commandment. It was, he said, “a story about many things, about terrible crimes, but it’s also about love…. Storytelling makes a difference because we all share in the human condition.” The theologian Alister McGrath agrees that there is now widespread support for the view that “that stories are the basic medium through which human beings view reality” and that Christianity has always inhabited and proclaimed its message in a story-filled world. Tomorrow is the Feast of Pentecost when the Christian Church recalls one of the greatest stories in the bible. Pentecost, as the name suggests, is always celebrated 50 days after Easter. The Book of Acts vividly recalls the coming of the Holy Spirit on some worried disciples in an upper room. Suddenly there is the sound of a violent wind. Tongues of fire rest on each of them. It’s a transforming, dramatic moment as the church is born. After weeks of uncertainty, the disciples have new hope. Now they are equipped to tell the story of Jesus more widely in many different languages But what was their message to be? The Spirit brings a variety of gifts to different people. But, from the very start, there is clearly one gift which has a higher place than all the others. And that’s the gift of love – a theme taken up in many of the letters in the bible written to the early churches. I had an interesting conversation with a headteacher friend this week, about how to sum up the ethos of her school. It consists of many faiths and none. She said that love is indeed the quality, or gift, which best summarises a diverse community united by mutual support & respect. Such love overcomes division. It encapsulates harmony, Shuns hatred. I’ll be celebrating Pentecost tomorrow, with people of all ages, as a festival of love. It’s a day when the flames of hope still burn brightly for Christians in a challenging world. I have a favourite Pentecost hymn – gracious spirit holy ghost – which will be sung in many cathedrals and churches from tomorrow. Those assembled sing of the great gifts of God, faith and hope and love joining hands together – but the greatest of the three, and the best, is love.