Over the last few months I have had the wonderful support of a physiotherapist helping me learn to walk again after my broken ankle meant that I had spent several weeks in a wheelchair. When I first met him he told me he was just about to set off on Hajj to Mecca- a pilgrimage he and his wife had been planning and saving up for- a trip of a life-time. The next time I saw him for physiotherapy he had just returned- his head shaved and I could see he was still living the experience. He told me how completely life changing and amazing but exhausting it had been.

It was easy to talk to him: though he a Muslim from Pakistani heritage and I a Christian, we had so much to share. We talked about the pilgrimages we had both made and what life changing experiences they had been. We discovered that we had both been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and in fact stayed in the same hotel in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem- more than that, we both had a friend in common who I had got to know in Jerusalem. We talked about our experiences of praying there- he in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, I in the Holy Sepulchre. We talked about praying here in London. He told me he wakes before the sun rises to pray in the neighbouring mosque each day which at this time of year is about 4.30am- I told him about praying in St Martin’s at 7.00am in the morning- early enough for me.

And while we talked he worked with me on my ankle- teaching me to use crutches, to climb stairs again, and then showing me exercises to do and how to reduce the swelling. Here we were learning from each other about pilgrimage, prayer, faith, healing, kindness, care and friendship. Are these things not the very essence of our Christian faith?

Isn’t it true that so often we see the image of Christ in those outside the Christian tradition also made in the image of God. It is frightening to live in a nation where fear is being stirred up towards migrants who come from a different faith or culture- if only we could learn to see each person for the grace they bring that so often we fail to recognise.

Revd Richard Carter