I am He, the Trinity; I am He, the unity; I am He, the great supreme goodness of every kind of thing; I am He, who makes you to love; I am He, who makes you to long; I am He, the endless fulfilling of all true desires.
Julian of Norwich (1342-1423)

If we truly believe that we are created in the image and likeness of God, then what we believe about God affects what we believe about ourselves — and vice versa.

If we believe that God, in any of the three persons — Father, Son, or Holy Spirit — can live independently of the rest, then we might be apt to believe that we, ourselves, can live quite independently of others. Because we tend to understand the three persons of the Trinity in isolation from each other, it’s easy to see how quick the slide is toward a ‘rugged individualism’ among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and, thus, a theological rational for our own turning away from each other in pursuit of our own success.

But orthodox Trinitarian theology is very clear that there’s no ‘independence’ within the Godhead — differentiation, for sure, but not independence.  Instead, we believe that there is a constant conversation happening between the three inter-dependent persons of the Trinity. It’s clear in both God’s being and God’s doing, that the three need each other to be complete.  That’s right, within God we see ‘need,’ inter-dependence,’ ‘mutuality,’ ‘humility,’ and ‘love.’  It’s the nature of the Trinitarian God in whom we believe.

If that’s God’s nature and we’re created in God’s image and likeness, then what does this say about us? To what degree are we designed to need each other? to be inter-dependent, mutual, humble, and loving?

This summer’s General Convention of The Episcopal Church explores these ideas within it’s guiding theme of ‘Ubuntu,’ the belief (and practice) that, as Jon Donne notes, ‘no man is an island.’