Joel Luke – Life with Faith

Christian Unity 2026
Act of Unity – The cloth,

Good morning church, I am the Youth leader at St.Johns and was set the task of providing an act of unity without candles.
Please take the piece of cloth you have been given by our young people and hold it in your hands. Does anyone need a piece of cloth?

Take a moment to look at it.
No two pieces are the same.

Your neighbours will be different, they differ in length, width or colour.

This cloth represents us, our lives, our churches and it also represents the brokenness, division, conflict, fear, and injustice in the world.

Each of us carries different stories, experiences, and struggles.

We are not identical, but each person matters.

If you feel comfortable, ask the person next to you to help you loosely tie the cloth around your wrists.

Do not tie it tightly we will need to untie it shortly.

Once your hands are tied, please hold them up above your head if you can and keep them up.

How does it feel?

Bound?

Limited?

Tiring?

This reflects how the weight of the world’s brokenness can bind us when we try to carry it alone.

Now, please lower your hands and untie the cloth from your wrists.

Ask the person next to you to help you. 

We will connect this cloth to one another.

This is a reminder that God calls all of us to work together.

To share the love, hope, and peace of Christ in the world.

We do this in community with one another.

Through our churches and traditions, each unique, each valued.

Now, tie your piece of cloth end to end to the persons cloth next to you, tightly.

Then to the next person and so on, the cloth should multiply quickly and maintain 2 ends

Keep passing and tying the cloth so that each row becomes one length.

As the cloth links us, we see that unity is not about being alike.

But about different people holding each other, held together by God’s grace. 

We come from different churches and traditions –

Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and the Salvation Army,

Yet we are bound together by the same faith and hope in Jesus Christ.

Once your row is connected, pass the cloth forward and tie it to the next row, and then the next, until everyone’s piece of cloth  is linked together.

This is what unity looks like:
churches standing side by side,
sharing the weight of the world and the work of God’s kingdom.


Finally, bring the end of the cloth to the front and we will loop it around the frame during the hymn, showing that when all our differences and all the brokenness of the world are gathered in God, they form something stronger, more beautiful, and wholesome. 

Thank you.