I have just been listening to something that sounds completely unconnected but I will draw the link at the end. In the meantime, just listen to the tale.

A nearby church is in the area of Pear Tree, now part of Southampton, but on the other side of the River Itchen. It was built in around 1618 and consecrated in 1620, in order to avoid having to cross the river the whole time. While some 20 smaller chapels were consecrated after the Reformation this was the first full church to do so, and there was no process to do it, so it had to be prepared specially. It had to satisfy the high Anglican wing who wanted fonts and other such fittings, and the near-puritan wing who thought all of that sort of thing idolatrous. It had to address the abstract religious aspects and the legal and day-to-day stuff like who legally owned the land and who tithes were paid to, for example.

The animosity between those two wings of Anglicanism was huge; it was in living memory how people who went too far in one direction could find themselves killed as a consequence. The lucky ones found themselves merely heavily fined, imprisoned or shunned. Many on each side took a 'no comprise is possible' stance and felt their personal salvation depended on them doing so. No stakes could be higher.

Yet it was possible to construct a service that satisfied both wings. The way it was done was essentially by acknowledging each side's view and for example, showing those of the 'biblical fundamentalist' tendency that everything that was done had a chapter-and-verse backing. Similarly, it said to those who wanted a feature "you can have it if you can show biblical backing."

Do not imagine for one moment the rows between the Corbyn wing and the Blair wing (for the sake of names) are more than a pale shadow of the animosity between these two religious interpretations. The solution was not to 'find a compromise in the middle'. It was for each to recognise a legitimacy in the other. Stop treating the situation as a battle with an enemy. Both sides needed to do that for Pear Tree, and I think the same applies to Labour. Fail, and Labour fails completely whichever point of view you hold. Succeed, and both sides can get much of what they want by persuading the other wing, not by attempting to browbeat them into submission.

Maybe Labour is too divided to do that. I hope not.

Here endeth the sermon.