'Bonding' is an 'in' word at the moment. Like most such things it comes from America. In America it has now probably ceased to be 'in' and become 'out', which means we will catch up in about five years time; this is usually the case, as the obligatory "mission statements" and "vision statements" which we are assured are essential to survival, which Americans now regard as old hat, and which we will presumably be consigning to the dustbin in about 2002.

Anyone, for the benefit of any innocents who have not come across the word, 'bonding' means getting people to know and trust each other, and form a community. If you have ever been asked to a party and walked into a crowded room to find you knew nobody, and were then rescued by your hostess who steered you in the direction of someone to talk to, then, in an elementary way, you were being 'bonded'.

Many firms are now very much into bonding to produce a happy and purposeful workforce - or so they think. One of their devices is to send feeble employees on outdoor courses designed to improve their teamwork and resourcefulness. Many of these courses sound like preparations for being a Royal Marines commando, have resulted in participants being injured and nearly killed or drowned, and returning from their week away hating each other.

Some companies like to subject their staff to character forming tests which sound like complicated and sadistic forms of 'compulsory games'. One such is walking on hot coals (apparently they aren't that hot, but the victims, who are being psychologically stimulated to achieve a triumph of communal willpower, don't know that; however, in one botched experiment in Cheltenham, all the participants landed up in hospital). Another ploy is to have employees undress and sit around in underwear commenting freely on each other; maybe we should try this at the Parish Pastoral Council to achieve maximum 'interchange'.

If as Christians we find all this laughable, we have to remember that Jesus devised tests just as daunting for his 'employees': curing diseases and sickness, treading on 'serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy', being persecuted and attacked.