Hi Tad,

Happy New Year! First, apologies for presuming to know what social scientists are thinking and doing these days. I do have an interest in the field and have taken several courses in anthropology and psychology when at university many years ago. However, I do have the bad habit of setting up straw dogs and instead need to stick to my own area of expertise. Nevertheless, having said that I do feel that this cross-disciplinary dialogue is intriguing and to put myself in an other's shoes is not entirely bad. Please correct me when I do over step. The reading in today's service was from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians on adoption. Paul's message is that we are all adopted by God as God's heirs and children. We are all one big family and are all descendants of the First Patriarchs. The Bible is our family history. It is a wonderful way to look at the world and challenges us to be open to everyone around us. We are all kin, brothers and sisters in Christ. One can push this to include all of life and introduce and ecological understanding of family and oneness with God the Creator. Kinship was the great discovery of anthropology and it is a great metaphor for social relationships in general. The religious impulse is to extend this kinship as far and wide as possible; to include the other. There is a lovely passage from Genesis about when Abraham welcomes strangers into his home. The passage opens with the statement that "The Lord appeared to Abraham" and Abraham calls the strangers, "Lord." Strangers can be feared or welcomed. They can be angels and messengers of God. God is present in those chance encounters with the other, present in the gap between strangers. This is one reason why travelling can be so exhilarating. Opposites do attract. God and love is everywhere!

Nort