Be dressed for action
Roy Hackett died this week. He was 93 years old. Sixty years ago he was one of the four men who organised the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963. He came to Bristol from Trench Town, Jamaica, in 1952 and found a city - and a nation - where the colour bar was, not only legal, but also widespread.
Not long only ago in a TV interview, he commented on the difficulty he had finding a job and a place to live. He said "I walked down Ashley Road looking for housing and found one that didn't have a sign in the window saying 'no gypsies, no Irish, no dogs, no coloureds'. The lady opened the door, saw me, and without saying a word, just slammed the door. It was a struggle: people were blatantly racist."
It wasn't just the householders. The then Bishop of Bristol is on record as describing the action of Hackett's West Indian Development Council as "being too militant"!
Some people choose to put themselves in the place of the struggle for justice. Others (like this church in our relationship to Edward Colston) find themselves in the eye of the storm whether they like it or not. Their choice (our choice) is not so much whether to stand up for justice, but more about what to stand up for, who to stand alongside, how to be seen and known for being on the side of truth and justice.
Sunday's gospel urges us to be dressed ready for action, to have our lamps lit and to open the door as soon as the master knocks. In other words, to be ready: ready to stand up in the face of intolerance and to stand for justice, truth and righteousness.
Roy Hackett provides us with a role model of someone who shows us what it means to get ready and to be ready; and shows us what a huge difference it can make when we are ready.
Dan Tyndall
August 2022
