Relational Wellbeing

We are beings made for relationship. In Genesis, we hear that the first note of discord in all of creation was that ‘man was alone’. To survive and thrive, we need connection to others.

Our access to communications technology, our capacity to travel and our levels of disposable income to spend socially on things like meals, holidays and experiences has never been higher, yet at the same our communities are fragmenting, we are reporting loneliness at higher levels than ever before, and relational breakdown and domestic violence remain prevalent.

Consumerism can sap our time, increase our financial distress, teach us that it is the individual, not the community that matters, and reduce us to thinking of others as commodities. For ourselves and for those we care about to flourish, we will need to reimagine what it is to love our neighbour in an age of consumerism.