So, We Travel in Hope

Written by Simon Jones.

Last week I posted this to Facebook in reply to a friend’s post reflecting on how we cope in these troubled times:

I have been trying to overcome my impotent rage by focussing on two things. The first is to focus on what I with others can do locally through our church (small) and community connections (bigger and growing through conversations and partnerships. The second is to continue working with a small number of displaced people in Calais and London, offering kindness in a hostile environment, and learning hospitality from those who have little or nothing. Oh, and a third would be to detach myself as far as possible from the oligarchy strangling the world. This entails trying to avoid spending money with them. Tricky but doable to a point. And then wash it all in prayer. In desperate times only God knows which way is up.

It was well-received and I thought worthy of a little expansion.

I feel strangely hopeful wondering around a charity shop, a community recycling all sorts of stuff so it doesn’t end up in landfill and could find a home that will love it again. We’ve recently been gifted a record player, so I have been dusting off my old vinyl and playing music that I bought as much as 50 years ago and haven’t acquired in newer forms. And this has given me a new section to look in when I visit the charity shops in my neighbourhood. I haven’t found any vinyl yet but I will, so I travel in hope…

Among my vinyl stash was a copy of Deacon Blue’s Raintown, an album from another time when hope was being stripped to the bone by a government trumpeting ‘there’s no such thing as society.’

On that collection of bright and elegantly crafted pop, these lines jumped out then and still do,

And I’m telling this story
In a faraway scene
Sipping down raki
And reading Maynard Keynes
And I’m thinking about home and all that that means
And a place in the winter for dignity

For the financial journalist I was then, hearing a pop singer reflect on John Maynard Keynes, the economist ditched by Thatcher and her cronies, stopped me in my tracks and filled with an unexpected joy. Others felt as I did (of course, they would); others believed there was an alternative. So, we travel in hope…

And later in my musical travels, I was stopped in my tracks by maverick artist and musician, Joseph Arthur,

And you might have a greater income
Or you might be dumb and dull
But either way I won’t leave you
Travel as equals or not at all
So help me too in my slumber
If I’m blind in madness hall
If I’m deaf amongst the thunder
Travel as equals or not at all

Another siren voice reminding me that we don’t face any of this alone but only as part of a community in solidarity, pursuing a better vision. And so we travel in hope…

When the headlines mug me, I put my headphones on and am reminded what really matters. So I shall be off to visit friends in the safe house in Calais, where displaced people shelter from increasingly chill and hostile winds, and we will tell stories of journeys, share food from a kaleidoscope of countries, and laugh and cry, and laugh some more. So, we travel in hope…

And back home we pursue conversations to develop a place of welcome and belonging, where as a community we pool resources and skills and people crushed by circumstances and the hostile environment rise and take their place as equals in our community, knowing the dignity of work and income; knowing without knowing the truth of Keynesian multiplier effect, that investment generates greater value that we could ever imagine. So, we travel in hope…

✏️ Simon Jones is an activist theologian who works with refugees in Calais and London and is part of a team trying to turn a closed church into something useful for the community.

💬 All views are those of the author, and copyright belongs to them. This has been presented as provided to thebrokenchurch.

📧 If you’re interested in sharing a little hope between 5th March and 17th April 2025, get in touch (abrokenpastor@gmail.com) with your contribution. It can be an article, blog post, artwork, poem, song, photo… there are no rules others than it be your original work and offers a little bit of hope.