Before being ordained an Episcopal priest Jack was a big game guide in Alaska. Once he took an elderly German out hunting Kodiak bear. Jack needed to spend a penny and as he turned towards an inviting bush he slid twenty feet down a gravel bank and landed – without his rifle – almost in the lap of a big sow bear with her two cubs. A noisy affair: The bear rushed him twice - stopping just short of him before heading off with her cubs. Jack scrambled back to find the old German still scanning the beach with his binoculars. He’d turned off his hearing aid so he could better concentrate.

Jack swears the story is true.

Each time I ignore the unrest in my family or my congregation I think of this story - or when I make a decision to stop watching the television news because I don’t much like the pain and the worry it provokes in me.