A moment of hope

As gloom deepens with news of Covid infections in the UK, it was refreshing to observe a moment of hope in last week’s inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. There was austerity in the proceedings, not least because of the shocking events the world had recently witnessed in the storming of the US Capitol.

An unprecedented level of security, and the massed ranks of flags to represent people who could not be present, restored a note of realism into the presentation of US life and politics.

The event’s acknowledgement of the pandemic was a powerful reminder that we belong inescapably to a global community in which our interests are interwoven with the lives of other people.

The centre of Washington is a vast theatre space for significant events in the life of a great nation. At 78, Joe Biden is the oldest person yet to be sworn in as a new President.

Remarkably, he reached beyond his identity as white, male and elderly, by inviting Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate, to read her poem, The Hill We Climb, in which she describes herself as ‘a skinny Black girl descended from slaves’.

She touched hearts and the future; she ignited the event, as one journalist put it.

Gorman shares with Joe Biden a commitment to Christian faith. Both of them are worthy ambassadors for Christianity in its best and broadest vision of dignity, hope and moral purpose for all people. It is a vision we often hear echoed often in the Queen’s Christmas Message.

Gorman’s poem references words from the Old Testament that are summed up when Jesus speaks to those he encounters after he has risen from the dead. He says, ‘Do not be afraid’.

This is not an invitation to be reckless or disengaged. Instead, demonstrates that freedom from fear is the only condition in which we can dare to hope, to love and to act. As Gorman’s poem notes: “…this is true: “That even as we grieved, we grew. “That even as we hurt, we hope.”