Confluence

4th March 2025

I hope that you had a decent return after the half time break.

It’s felt much brighter and warmer, on occasions this week, and as of Saturday we are in meteorological Spring. We can expect warmer and certainly longer days.

As an aged geography teacher – and I will/would still describe myself as a teacher when talking to people beyond the school or college, and why not! – I am very proud of and humbled by the work our teachers do and very proud of my professional history, as a teacher. We, as the adults, wear working in schools and colleges as a badge of pride. Anyway, and this is the Geography bit, the word of the week for me is confluence; which describes the meeting of two or more rivers. More generally, we might use the word to describe a coming together of circumstances.

It’s been a week of a confluence in our solar system. Just above the horizon, if you know where to look and have some binoculars or a telescope, you might just see six of our solar system’s planets (it’s seven if you count earth). Four of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars – will be visible to the naked eye, but you’ll need a device to see the other two – Neptune and Uranus. The best, and last chance to see them, will be just after sunset Friday. The phenomenon is known as the ‘Planetary Parade’ and will be the last time the seven planets can be seen simultaneously until 2040 – to reassure you (or not, as the case may be) I’m still likely to be sending out these weekly missives then!

Another confluence to reflect upon is the simultaneous periods of self-discipline, self-reflection and religious observance in two of the world’s most important religions; Islam and Christianity. Due to the shifting nature of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan (it shifts by 10 days every year, as it follows the lunar calendar) and the drifting nature of Easter (as set at the Synod of Whitby in 664CE) Ramadan and Lent follow a very similar calendar this year. Ramadan is likely to start Friday or Saturday evening, depending upon the new moon, and Lent begins on Wednesday.

Many Muslims and Christians will be following the well-established tenets of their faith and at the heart of this will be fasting. The purpose of fasting is not necessarily to suffer but to allow the individual to focus on, and be reminded of, their faith. Fasting is always accompanied by prayer and alms giving.

We hear so much of difference and division in this increasingly polarised (and sometimes very angry) world but this period of confluence reminds us that we all have more in common than we have difference. And the commonality is with a clear focus on how we might as an individual interact with others, through our faith (in whatever shape that might take – be it attached to a formal religious belief or not), how we might link into our communities, through our deeds, and how similar we are, through how we present.

This week, of all weeks, we can reflect upon who we are, how we fit into the natural world and what our personal beliefs might tell us about ourselves and others.

‘Fasting is, first and foremost, an exercise for identifying and managing adversity in all its forms. With faith, in full conscience, fasting calls women and men to an extra degree of self-awareness’. Tariq Ramadan