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Good Morning The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting in York this weekend and, as always, most of the news generated out of it will concern the latest attempts to get agreement for women to be ordained as bishops. But the Synod does do other things, which hardly ever make the headlines. This afternoon, for instance, members will hear a presentation on The Common Good from the American Christian writer and activist Jim Wallis who acts as a spiritual adviser to President Obama – which they will then debate. It was in these studios, actually, last year during the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s Dream Speech, that I met Jim Wallis for the first time. He’s a visionary, a theologian and a political activist. He attempts to transform theological thinking into a dynamic manifesto for social change. And so - The Common Good. What is it? Who decides it? How can it work amidst so much diversity and so many vested interests whilst not ignoring the gift of interpretation which rarely leads different people or groups to the same place? The ability to embrace The Common Good is not only a hugely pertinent question for many faith groups at the present time. The challenge equally applies to communities, countries and continents the world over. I’ve just come back from Jerusalem, where individual Palestinians and Israelis talked almost constantly about a desire to find common ground to end all violence. But the Common Good in the Holy Land remains an enigma. This morning, it tragically seems as far away as ever? Centuries of New Testament study have interpreted and reinterpreted the Common Good as the nub, or essence, of what all four Gospels refer to as the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom, which is not easy to explain, transcends religious and political differences and focuses on commonalities. The spotlight is not on me but on my neighbour. Priorities must be reassessed if the new order is to transform the old. The French philosopher Albert Camus darkly observed that “More and more, when faced with the world, the only reaction is one of individualism. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.” Jim Wallis will tell Synod members today that faith necessitates a different approach. To achieve the Common Good demands that we make unselfish and positive choices which create the kind of cultural shifts and social movements that can initiate real change.