Thought For The Day – Wednesday 15th April 2026
You’ll Never Walk Alone
The date of someone’s birth is important. It celebrates their life, the positive difference they make, have made, and continue to make. It gives thanks for the joy of them coming into the world.
The date of someone’s passing from this life is equally important, and in many ways more even so, as the continuing legacy of the person is deeply and profoundly remembered. Their love and inspiration are always with us.
The Right Reverend James Jones K.B.E., who visited us last academic year, talked about the challenge beyond words of grief which he called “a journey without destination because there is “no closure to love”.
Bishop James advised us to act with empathy, justice, mercy, and humility. “In all your dealings, be fair and in so doing make the world a fairer place…in Jesus’ name”, said Bishop James.
Bishop James has supported many people in their most challenging moments. He has shown solidarity with those suffering. He has spoken truth to power. He has talked of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of the environment also.
As Bishop of Liverpool, for example, Bishop James played a vital role in supporting the bereaved, and being an advocate for truth and justice, in relation to the Hillsborough tragedy, where 97 Liverpool supporters of all ages lost their lives, and were unlawfully killed, at a men’s football match 37 years ago today, on the 15th of April 1989.
That day, Liverpool was always in our heart. And since. And still.
Bishop James’ official, meticulous, and vital report into the Hillsborough tragedy was called: “The patronising disposition of unaccountable power: A report to ensure the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families is not repeated”.
In his Christian Social Ethics, and in supporting the bereaved, Bishop James was inspired by a story Jesus told about a determined, persistent, and resilient widow who kept going back to an uncaring and unjust judge to seek justice. The widow’s cry was eventually heard by the judge, who changed. People’s cries will be infinitely heard by God, says Jesus, after he had told the parable.
Everyone has challenges in life. Some have more severe challenges that are beyond words.
Sometimes, to quote St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, in the Bible, people see “only as through a glass darkly”, like “looking in a dark mirror”. But, in this passage, Saint Paul also talks about Heaven, eternal life, and the power of Love.
On our journey and journeys, material and spiritual, we have each other. The Liverpool anthem, which became even more meaningful after the Hillsborough tragedy, is: “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
In the following extract, of one minute, from his longer radio programme of Easter 2023, Bishop James talks with Margaret Aspinall, the devoted mother of James Aspinall and inspirational campaigner for truth and justice. James died in the Hillsborough tragedy. James was 18 years of age. Margaret very movingly reflects on Michelangelo’s “Pietà” sculpture of Jesus and his mother Mary, pictured below. Margaret hopes she will, one day, meet her son, James, again.
“Holy Saturday: The Day When God Is Dead”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fdx1sl
