Canterbury Cathedral Birthdays should be happy events when we celebrate the gift and continuity of life - and that's certainly the case today. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church and we commemorate in our celebration God's gift of life through Jesus Christ. In the gospel Jesus spoke of the Comforter who would come to his followers on his departure from them. In the Acts passage we have the astonishing narrative of a new community created by that same Comforter, the Holy Spirit, a community which is sent out to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
Boundaries are on the whole good things.
And there is plenty to commend that view. We need such boundaries, not only to feel secure but also for others to recognise proper limits. There is a less attractive side to boundaries, and in two particular ways Pentecost enlarges our thinking about them. First of all we are challenged to think differently about the human family. The Acts of the Apostles speaks of a new community created across the boundaries of language, nationality, tribe and gender.