Posted on: 4th June 2025

It’s been a long time since Leeds United’s last open-top bus parade. 33 years, to be precise. Therefore, it was unsurprising that for one day in May, Leeds city centre looked something like a combination of a South American carnival and the barbarian sack of Rome. My sister and niece live almost 200 miles away, but there was no way they were missing out. I couldn’t make it due to illness, but I watched the parade on YouTube. My wife, who could barely be less interested in football, was nonetheless drawn to this moment of citywide rejoicing. Our son disappeared in the morning and didn’t return until late into the night.

We are told that we living in a time when men, in particular, are isolated and depressed, unable to articulate their feelings for fear of ridicule and exclusion. There’s no denying that this is true. Yet the 5th May 2025 was a huge, multigenerational, multicultural, gender-inclusive outpouring of communal joy led by men. Men get a lot of flak in our society, and deep down, many of us know we deserve it. Often men are cast adrift between an exaggerated masculinity that has none of the joy or community of that parade, and an exaggerated femininity in which compassion, connection and vulnerability are ‘women’s stuff’.

The parade belies all these false extremes. After all, neither Jesus nor Paul ever listed virtues that were just for men or women. Men need to belong, and they need a place to both celebrate and mourn. This is what the kingdom of God is supposed to be about. Why is it so hard for men to find places where they can be openly and vulnerably themselves?

The late Leeds University professor Zygmunt Bauman explained why events like the Leeds United parade are important. He said that we now live in an age of hyper-individualism, which is not a natural state for humans. We are bombarded with messages that the most important thing is to be ‘our true selves, no compromises’. This leaves us isolated and depressed. Bauman suggests that festivals act like a séance, in which the ghost of community is contacted for just a few hours before being sent back to the grave. We hunger for acceptance, but fear it as well. Yet when its ghost appears, we run to it.

The scriptures know nothing of this isolated world we live in; they assume community and only talk about how living together can be more Christlike. Many times, our gospel has unconsciously become as hyper-individualistic as our culture, all about saving my soul and helping me live more happily. I think one lesson we can learn from that amazing event is that pretty much everyone needs to belong, even if they think they don’t! The gospel Jesus preached is one that calls us to submit to God’s kingdom, and God’s kingdom cannot be experienced without others: friends, yes, but also strangers and enemies. Even if society is screaming at us that we shouldn’t give up our autonomy, it is in the struggle and joy of community that we will find out who we truly are.

By Simon Hall, Revive Church
northumbrian.org 
agodwecouldbelivein.substack.com