In all aspects of life we encourage and reward specialization. Examples abound in medicine, social care, the justice system, education – all of which tend to operate in well-defined silos.

In a society of specialists, we become less able to meet the “complex” needs of whole individuals.

Partnership, collaboration, joint working are designed to get different specialists working together towards a shared goal.

The God who created man, the earth and everything in it, is also interested in the benefits that come from working together – in fact, the psalmist describes unity as “good and pleasant”.

While partnerships in public life are fixed term and designed to come to an end when priorities change and/or the allocated budget runs out; God’s priorities and His idea of partnership are eternal.

His heart is toward to the poor and needy and He works through us as His representatives on earth to fulfil His purposes.

The apostle Paul urges us to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”.

This indicates a different paradigm where the pillars of society – business/economics, education, the family, the media, religion, government/law, the arts/entertainment – unite to break the vicious cycle of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, crime, bad health and family breakdown which afflict sectors of our community and prove resistant to official intervention.