A short reflection on Psalm 23 by His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London and Papal Legate to the United Kingdom

I want to share something I was reflecting on yesterday.  It is not rocket science, and not something you will not have heard before, but I happened to be reading Psalm 23, and the reminder about the Lord as my Shepherd caught my attention.   The Lord being our Shepherd and that ‘we shall not want’.  The first three points are; He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me by the still waters; He leads me in paths of righteousness.  I think those three components are really what makes the Church what it is, and what it needs to be. 

The first is this concept of green pastures, this plenty, people have need. People are hungry, hungry not only for food, but affection, for love, for time.  We have seen this through the pandemic.  The beauty of green pastures is that they roll on for acres, and so there is an abundance of gifts in the world, God’s gift to his people…we just need to be stewards of those gifts.  What we need to do is show  people the pastures, we need to look after them and tend to them sometimes but they are there by God’s grace. That’s really important. 

The second is leading us beside still waters, and that is providing calm and reassurance and peace. One of the most important passages of Scripture for me, is our Lord is on the boat with the disciples, and there is a great storm, and they are all frantically running around and it is very vivid in my mind. Jesus stands there, stretches out His hands and says ‘Peace, be still’. 

Three words; and there was a great calm.  He is the source of that calm, and we should introduce Him.   We are often trying to go around Him through our prayer routines and bible studies, we are going and hearing people speaking, running around the ship trying to do things ourselves.  We cannot calm the storm.  We just have to deal with the storm. Sometimes all we can do is brace for impact. It is He who can calm the storm. So that’s the second point. 

The third point is the paths of righteousness.  Not only showing paths of righteousness but living paths of righteousness.  Being those moral compasses.  People are very disenchanted with authority figures at the moment.  One of the reasons the Ukrainian President is today’s rock star is because he has shown an image of leadership that we have not seen in many political leaders for years.  People are looking back at people like Pope Francis as well, and other religious leaders, and other leaders of society and finding that image of righteousness. As a Church if we just focus on our role as reflecting the light of Christ back into the world, not giving our own light, not doing our own thing, just reflecting His light, I think that’s important. 

So, the first is showing people goodness and abundance.

The second is introducing people to His peace. 

The third is reflecting his righteousness to the world. 

If we could just do those three things, we would be a much better place, and as a Church we would be in a much better place.

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Psalm 23 verses 1-3

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

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This reflection was shared at the second meeting of the ChurchWorks Commission in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster on 30 March 2022.

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