A WEST Somerset vicar this week waded into the controversy surrounding anti-immigration riots across the country by calling for people to stop thinking of others as ‘different’.

The Rev Kenneth Cross, the Grabbist Hill Benefice incumbent for Alcombe, Dunster, Timberscombe, and Wootton Courtenay, said in his newsletter: “Jesus did not come to establish ‘Christianity’ or a comfortable enclave.

“He came to disclose a way of being which is cosmic.

“Which means we of Christian tradition need to extend our understanding of ‘one another’ to include people of other traditions and cultures, and expect the love and wisdom which Jesus revealed to be evident there, too, even if framed in profoundly different language and ways of perceiving, ways which challenge our own understanding.

“The Christ way is a wholly all-embracing way, or it is nothing.

“There is a paradox here that we cannot resolve, but we must embrace it. 

“We define ourselves by our nationality, culture, politics, religion etc.

“All of these can be precious, making us unique and beautiful.

“But when we use them to define ourselves over and against another, they become pernicious.

“We have to abandon this and take the enormous risk of identifying ourselves with others, especially others who are different, even others who we may disagree deeply with.

“It is a hard path to walk, because we have to embrace tentativeness, uncertainty, complexity, and the wisdom and humility that says we might need to change our most cherished ideas.

“But in a world tearing itself apart, not only is this our only hope, it is also liberation, salvation, and joy.”

Mr Cross said contrary to illusions ‘we comfort ourselves with’, nothing was permanent in the world.

He said: “Sometimes, things seem to be just ticking along, but then unsettling events bring into sharp focus uncertainty.

“How do we respond?

“Jesus, before his own betrayal, said to his friends: ‘Love one another. Dwell in me, in one another, in God’.

“Those of us who are Christian often imagine these words apply only to those of us who are Christian.

“But in this way of living, nobody is ‘other’.”