SOUL SURMISE

BELFAST RACIST PROTESTS - AN EDITED SURMISE

A week after the deaths of those three children in their dance class in Southport, protests and riots have hit Southport, then Sunderland and now Belfast. The protests are against Muslims in our community. The 17 year old, accused of murdering the young girls was Muslim they say, therefore all Muslims were bad and needed ejected from our society. 

However, the young man was not Muslim and Islamophobia is no answer to the migration crisis happening across the world in the 21st century. 

In Belfast the riots got so close to home today that there were attacks on two hotels just beside Fitzroy (my church). I have heard of rioters taking selfies with the damaged windows that they had broken.

Other friends are in disbelief that this can be happening to us. Some telling me that they are in tears just thinking about it. Others have real fears for their Muslim friends. My family are in constant touch with our own friends who fear attack.. 

If any community in the British Isles should know of such illogical racism it is our very selves. Let me tell you when I and my family were treated as dangerous Northern Irish people back in the 1970s when the IRA were bombing across the islands.

It was a moment that frightened and deeply affected me. I was eleven years old. We were on holidays in the south of England looking for a Bed & Breakfast for the night. We had noticed someone walking past our car with a rather cautious look. 

While my dad enquired about vacancies in the B & B the police had arrived. Our car had been reported. It had Northern Ireland number plates and therefore we might be bombers. Even at 11 I realised that on mainland Britain I was thoughtlessly labelled Irish and the logical conclusion was that I was a terrorist and dangerous.

When I first heard Paul Brady’s Nothing But The Same Old Story it rang true. 

“Living under suspicion

Putting up with the hatred and fear in their eyes

You can see that you're nothing but a murderer

In their eyes, we're nothing but a bunch of murderers”

After 9/11 I found myself lumping races and religions all together and looking suspiciously at every middle eastern person on any flight that I happened to be on. Suddenly in my eyes… “they were nothing but a bunch of murderers.” Thankfully my own story shook me back to reality.

Beyond belief call to protest in Belfast today included the words on social media - ‘well intentioned Christians’. WHAT!? Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with Jesus or his intentions as to how we love our neighbour. The Parable of the Good Samaritan itself is a prophetic blast of Christ’s teaching against this kind of racism.

From the Old Testament laws through the prophets to the New Testament teaching of Jesus, the people of God are intentionally called to welcome and look after the stranger. In Leviticus (39:34) we read, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” The people of God knew what it was to live in another country and were to treat people with love, remembering that they were not when they were in Egpyt.

In his Parable about the Sheep and the Goats Jesus said that you would know his followers by how they treated the marginalised - For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36) 

The stranger? "Invited in”. That is Jesus’ intention, following through from the law and the prophets. At times of heightened tension and anger we need to be careful what we say to the other. I would not want to dehumanise the protestors. We need to be attempting to connect with those who seem to have such strong feelings. However, it seems to me that the closest you can come to being furthest away from our humanity under God is to wish harm or inflict harm on your fellow human. 

It is so good that so many church leaders have spoken out. It is vital to the betterment of our society that we stand against these kind of attacks. We need to assure those being targeted that we are for them and welcome them among us. 

Shalom.

MY RESPONSE TO THE CALL TO PROTEST MUSLIMS LIVING AMONG US

Last week’s heart breaking attack on the dance class in Southport that led to the deaths of three children was tragically followed by street violence against the Muslim community. It seems that the illogical conclusion was that if the 17 year old, accused of murdering, the young girls was Muslim then all Muslims were bad and needed ejected from our society.

A week later and I am watching fear filled social media calls for protests in Northern Ireland against our Muslim community. Even more disturbing is the suggestion that this is somehow a call of the Christian faith.

If any community in the British Isles should know of such illogical racism it is our very selves. Let me tell you when I and my family were treated as dangerous Northern Irish people back in the 1970s when the IRA were bombing across the islands.

It was a moment that frightened and deeply effected me. I was eleven years old. We were on holidays in the south of England looking for a Bed & Breakfast for the night. We had noticed someone walking past our car with a rather cautious look. 

While my dad enquired about vacancies in the B & B the police had arrived. Our car had been reported. It had Northern Ireland number plates and therefore we might be bombers. Even at 11 I realised that on mainland Britain I was thoughtlessly labelled Irish and the logical conclusion was that I was a terrorist and dangerous.

When I first heard Paul Brady’s Nothing But The Same Old Story it rang true. 

“Living under suspicion

Putting up with the hatred and fear in their eyes

You can see that you're nothing but a murderer

In their eyes, we're nothing but a bunch of murderers”

After 9/11 I found myself lumping races and religions all together and looking suspiciously at every middle eastern person on any flight that I happened to be on. Suddenly in my eyes… “they were nothing but a bunch of murderers.” Thankfully my own story shook me back to reality.

Beyond belief is that the social media call to protest against Muslims here in Belfast is to ‘well intentioned Christians’. WHAT!? Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with Jesus or his intentions as to how we love our neighbour. The Parable of the Good Samaritan itself is a prophetic blast of Christ’s teaching against this kind of racism.

From the Old Testament laws through the prophets to the New Testament teaching of Jesus, the people of God are intentionally called to welcome and look after the stranger. In Leviticus (39:34) we read, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” The people of God knew what it was to live in another country and were to treat people with love, remembering that they were not.

In his Parable about the Sheep and the Goats Jesus said that you would know his followers by how they treated the marginalised - For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36) 

The stranger? "Invited in”. That is Jesus intention, following through from the law and the prophets.

So I pray that these protesters will think again. That there will be no protest. If there are, I pray that there would be no violence or injury. For my Muslim friends feeling “vulnerable and threatened”, some of whom were at our Summer Club this morning, may you find home and Jesus followers who will make you feel safe in a place where you feel that you belong.

JUNE 4 - 35 YEARS AFTER TIANANMEN SQUARE

There are moments when you make good choices over the song to play. Way back in August 1990 I pressed the play button on the old walkman (remember them) and Bruce Cockburn’s Waiting For A Miracle started throwing images around my head that mingled perfectly and disturbingly with the bombardment of images around me.

Like the ones who've cried
Like the ones who've died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they're waiting for a miracle.

With my ears and my eyes in harmony to the disharmony, my soul attempted to make sense of my context. I was on Tiananmen Square. It was 16 months since June 4 1989 and the place was haunted by what happened there on that day. I wrote in my journal: -

“Tiananmen Square? All my thoughts on China, before and after I came here, ricocheted around the vast emptiness of this square. I will never forget this hour of my life and I’ll never be able to write down all that I thought in that too short a time.

It seemed so calm, so still, so peaceful and yet I am asking what happened here and what are the few people scattered around me thinking. I can see all these signs of history, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and Mao Mausoleum among them. But what about signs for the future? I watched people sitting, almost reverentially where the students sat the previous year and wondered what they were thinking. Did a loved one come here with a vision of a future and die for that future? The Chinese can so easily in their friendly and gentle disposition hide from us the truth of their hopes and fears.”

I have said it before and will say it again that Cockburn’s travelogue songs are so full of his lyrical genius that you just wish he was with you everywhere you go. Add places of political injustice and even more so. Waiting For A Miracle was written about Nicaragua but it fitted here. Never have I had such a detailed soundtrack to what I was seeing around me. Cockburn’s words could have been written as I attempted to write down my own thoughts: -

“Somewhere out there is a place that's cool
Where peace and balance are the rule
Working toward a future like some kind of mystic jewel
And waiting for a miracle.”

“Peace and balance” is a very Chinese concept. Working for a future and as the next verse suggests, “How come history takes such a long, long time/When you're waiting for a miracle.” A miracle? As I sat on my own, wondering and pondering and writing, Cockburn’s song was as Tolstoy suggested art should be, “Intercourse between human and human.” Cockburn and I were in conversation but more it became a resource for me to be in spiritual intercourse with God also.

And my prayer was that these people, particularly the children who all smiled for a photograph and then moved their heads right on my click, that an interruption of God’s grace would bring a peaceful and balanced future and see the speed of history quicken. Thirty five years on... and I remember that hour as vividly as when I was there and Cockburn still converses with me. Still I pray!

 

There are moments when you make good choices over the song to play. Way back in August 1990 I pressed the play button on the old walkman (remember them) and Bruce Cockburn’s Waiting For A Miracle started throwing images around my head that mingled perfectly and disturbingly with the bombardment of images around me.

Like the ones who've cried
Like the ones who've died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they're waiting for a miracle.

With my ears and my eyes in harmony to the disharmony, my soul attempted to make sense of my context. I was on Tiananmen Square. It was 16 months since June 4 1989 and the place was haunted by what happened there on that day. I wrote in my journal: -

“Tiananmen Square? All my thoughts on China, before and after I came here, ricocheted around the vast emptiness of this square. I will never forget this hour of my life and I’ll never be able to write down all that I thought in that too short a time.

It seemed so calm, so still, so peaceful and yet I am asking what happened here and what are the few people scattered around me thinking. I can see all these signs of history, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and Mao Mausoleum among them. But what about signs for the future? I watched people sitting, almost reverentially where the students sat the previous year and wondered what they were thinking. Did a loved one come here with a vision of a future and die for that future? The Chinese can so easily in their friendly and gentle disposition hide from us the truth of their hopes and fears.”

I have said it before and will say it again that Cockburn’s travelogue songs are so full of his lyrical genius that you just wish he was with you everywhere you go. Add places of political injustice and even more so. Waiting For A Miracle was written about Nicaragua but it fitted here. Never have I had such a detailed soundtrack to what I was seeing around me. Cockburn’s words could have been written as I attempted to write down my own thoughts: -

“Somewhere out there is a place that's cool
Where peace and balance are the rule
Working toward a future like some kind of mystic jewel
And waiting for a miracle.”

“Peace and balance” is a very Chinese concept. Working for a future and as the next verse suggests, “How come history takes such a long, long time/When you're waiting for a miracle.” A miracle? As I sat on my own, wondering and pondering and writing, Cockburn’s song was as Tolstoy suggested art should be, “Intercourse between human and human.” Cockburn and I were in conversation but more it became a resource for me to be in spiritual intercourse with God also.

And my prayer was that these people, particularly the children who all smiled for a photograph and then moved their heads right on my click, that an interruption of God’s grace would bring a peaceful and balanced future and see the speed of history quicken. Thirty five years on... and I remember that hour as vividly as when I was there and Cockburn still converses with me. Still I pray!

EMPTY SHOES LOST LIVES DEMO

 

EMPTY SHOES, LOST LIVES DEMO

 

STORMONT,

 

SATURDAY, 17th JUNE@3.00PM

 

 

I have become more and more aware of our homeless in Belfast down through the years. 

 

Fitzroy have partnered with Homeplus in our local area with some of our congregation doing work on the streets.

 

Then Damian McNairney introduced me to the People's Kitchen, showing us around their new buildings in the old bank at Carlisle Circus. The 4 Corners Festival Knitters contributed hats to their work.

 

At the last 4 Corners Festival the Westcourt Centre Camera Club put on the Never In My Wildest Dreams Exhibition (see some work at the top of this blog), working alongside residents in supported accommodation in Rosemount House. It was an eye opener for me, just months after a summer when we lost too many people on our streets.

 

In Belfast for the most part it is not drug takers who are homeless. The drug dealers are infiltrating our homeless, leading them into addiction and sadly suicide. 

 

Desmund Tutu has said, "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in."

 

For me it is easy when we pull people out to concentrate on them. When we ask why they are falling in then we find the spotlight on ourselves and the society we live in. We are complicit in the falling in before we are a help in the pulling out.

 

Jesus of course told it straight. It is those who care for the homeless who will be welcomed into eternal life. That care should never be at the point of pulling out but way further upstream. 

 

Let us ask questions of our politicians at Stormont on Saturday!

 

 

COMPASSIONATE POLITICAL LEADERS

In our Fitzroy Zoom Prayer Meeting for a few years now we have prayed for World Leaders. It’s what the Bible asks of us. Let us be honest the world could do with some leaders right now.

I started thinking about leaders. Matthew writes in chapter 9 verse 36 of his Gospel account:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

In The Message Eugene Peterson paraphrases compassion with ‘his heart broke”.

This for me is the mark of good leadership. The priority of the leader is the people. Do not get me wrong, we cannot eliminate the principle of institutionalised governance BUT those things should never be the priority. Leadership is relational, emotional and compassionate. It is about people.

I feared that some would say but this is Jesus being spiritual. It might say something for Church leaders but not for politicians. Then in preparation for a sermon on John 10, a commentator suggested that when Jesus spoke about thieves and robbers climbing into the sheep pen he was not just talking about the Pharisees but the Romans too. They were after the peoples’ allegiance. There was no compassion, therefore there was oppression. I now had a robust argument and an Independent newspaper headline “Voters want more compassionate politicians” suggested I was on to something! 

Many of us are heartbroken when 90 year old relations are waiting for half a day for an ambulance, when loved ones on horrendous hospital waiting lists, when our education system is over stretched, when working people are using Foodbank, when we see the homeless dying on our streets with hundreds of buildings boarded up. 

We need leaders with compassion for people not a greater love for principles or ideologies, never mind outdated ideologies. 

So, I am looking for the compassionate leaders. The recent budget and the cuts across our society is not the result of compassionate leadership. Some of our own politicians are to blame. The Tories trying to blame them are complicit too. 

I am looking for leaders who are looking at the marginalised in our society who Jesus cared for most; the sick, the hungry, the homeless, the refugee.

A broken heart for such people and compassion upon them will drive leaders to policies of change and care. I would add that I am looking for leaders who care for ALL, not just those in their ideological constituency.

MILD HALLOWEEN WEATHER - A JOY OR AN ALARM BELL RINGING?

I stepped out tonight. It was around 10pm. I realised that it was the first time I had done it since March 2020. My first post Covid-19  trip to the Petrol Station. It’s almost Halloween… and I didn’t need a coat. Late October… Belfast… no coat! Whaaat!

My father-in-law has commented most days recently after he has lifted the leaves in the garden about how amazing the weather is. 86 years of late Octobers and he can hardly believe it how mild it is. He is loving it. Michaela Strachan on BBC’s Autumn Watch called the weather extraordinary! 

Then at the Fitzroy Zoom Prayer Meeting Tony started sharing in what we call our Big World Prayer Points. Tony took us to Kathmandu where there is a dengue fever endemic. The particular mosquitos that carry dengue have moved into the Kathmandu valley because of the change in the weather and temperature, making lots of people ill and killing many.

I was suddenly reminded of a few lines from the late great songwriter Mark Heard who sang on Some Folks World - 

Rain can ruin your weekend
Or rain can spare your life
Depending on who you are and what your thirst is like

It is almost an upside down version. The effects of our climate crisis gives us a warm and lovely Halloween while it is causing deaths in the Nepalese capital.

Let us not be fooled though. There are no long time winners with the crisis of climate change. Yes, I believe that for sure the poor will feel the brunt of the early changes to our weather systems. We should not be complacent. The long term results will impact us all, or at least our children and theirs.

So as we bask in crazy late October temperatures and wonder if we will ever need our heavier tog duvets let it be an alarm bell going of. This is not a glorious new world but the warning of a doomsday to come unless we act NOW!

PRAYERS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE AND COP26

Lord, we worship you

Creator of the world

Sustainer of the Universe

The Lagan Towpath, kingfishers and seals

Creator of the Antrim coast

The beaches and ocean

The headlands and forests

The 40 shades of green

Creator of the Mournes

The vistas of mountain peaks

The views from there.

God, thank you for the beauty of your art.

 

Lord we ask for your forgiveness

For how careless we have been with our Father’s art

For how reckless we have been

For how we have turned our stewardship vocation

Into a miss-use and abuse of creation for our own ends

For the greed that thinks only of self and more

For the comforts we hold too dear at the cost of the ripping up of your art

For working against you rather than with you for climate justice

For the state in which your art now lies

Lord we ask for your forgiveness

 

And Lord, John tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”

 

So do more than forgive us Lord

Purify us from all unrighteousness

This particular week 

Show us our unrighteousness in relation to creation

Help us see

What has been done

What is being done

And what we can do to repent and transform and change

Lord set us free from our greed

From our diminished theology

From our violence to the earth

Set us free to be those who care for the world of our father’s hand

Who care for a creation that also groans for its full salvation

Set us free to make decisions 

In our lives

In our homes

In our places of work

In our cities to halt the environmental catastrophe

Set us free to allow political leaders meeting in Glasgow

To make decisions that might make our lives less comfortable

Less wealthy

That they might save our planet

 

Lord, start with us not the leaders

May we be the custodians of your art that you created us to be

And Jesus redeemed us to be,

 

Amen.  

COP 26 - WHAT ARE WE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE TO SAVE THE PLANET

COP26 has us all looking at Glasgow and thinking about saving the environment. Such gatherings of world leaders can give a real opportunity for pressure groups to march and make demands of our leaders. 

The beginning of COP26 has been encouraging in the speeches made and also the commitment to stop deforestation and cut methane emissions levels. Maybe they are listening.

The truth is that, even at my most cynical, I think that most leaders would like to make big decisions. I think that most would love to be on the right side of this historical crisis.

I wonder though what the pressures are on them are. Oh without doubt there will be pressures from big business, oil companies etc. The economy is the heartbeat of the modern world. Money literally makes the world go around. It creates jobs, pays for infrastructure and prevents poverty.

So, to put ourselves in the chairs of the Presidents and Prime Ministers they must be wondering at how their populations will respond to the decisions they finally do make.

It is one thing for me to march in Belfast on Saturday, or go to a Worship and Prayer Event before it, and to be prepared for the cost that it will be to my luxury and comfort to put the breaks on the environmental catastrophe that is reigning down upon us.

To make sure that we recycle is the easy thing though I still get angry at children of the Creator who play loose with seemingly not one bit bothered about caring for his art! 

Taking the bus will be easy. 

Trying to reduce our plastic will be easy.

What about the use of our cars? I remember when my mother got a work car and we were the freak family with two cars. With a parent, a cousin and a daughter regularly living with us there can now be 4 cars outside our house! 

What about flying? Some of us have family in Australia or British Columbia. Are we prepared to limit our visits and seeing grandparents and grandchildren? 

Some of us have missional connections across the world. Might we have to limit short term mission trips? 

When we travel to visit family across the UK are we prepared to take the least environmental damaging way?

Are we prepared to eat less red meat to save forests and are we willing to buy local produce at a higher cost or do without specialised fruit that comes from thousands of miles away. We love our avocados! 

We need to understand that the decisions that we are demanding from our leaders actually happen that it is going to curtail our lifestyles. We cannot ask for them to act and then vote against them at elections because the decisions that we demanded make our lives seem less. 

The world leaders at COP26 have no magic wand on saving our planet, God’s precious art as some of us describe it. The catastrophe we are in will need massive once in a generation decisions from our world leaders BUT also a total commitment to small everyday decisions from us and a declaration of our willingness to take the hit on our way of life to leave a world for our grandchildren. 

Marching is easy… before we march… what are we prepared to sacrifice to save the planet. 

COP26 - BIG WORLD DECISIONS & EVERYDAY WEE ONES

COP26 has us all looking at Glasgow and thinking about saving the environment. Such gatherings of world leaders can give a real opportunity for pressure groups to march and make demands of our leaders. 

The beginning of COP26 has been encouraging in the speeches made and also the commitment to stop deforestation and cut methane emissions levels. Maybe they are listening.

The truth is that, even at my most cynical, I think that most leaders would like to make big decisions. I think that most would love to be on the right side of this historical crisis.

I wonder though what the pressures are on them are. Oh without doubt there will be pressures from big business, oil companies etc. The economy is the heartbeat of the modern world. Money literally makes the world go around. It creates jobs, pays for infrastructure and prevents poverty.

So, to put ourselves in the chairs of the Presidents and Prime Ministers they must be wondering at how their populations will respond to the decisions they finally do make.

It is one thing for me to march in Belfast on Saturday, or go to a Worship and Prayer Event before it, and to be prepared for the cost that it will be to my luxury and comfort to put the breaks on the environmental catastrophe that is reigning down upon us.

To make sure that we recycle is the easy thing though I still get angry at children of the Creator who play loose with seemingly not one bit bothered about caring for his art! 

Taking the bus will be easy. 

Trying to reduce our plastic will be easy.

What about the use of our cars? I remember when my mother got a work car and we were the freak family with two cars. With a parent, a cousin and a daughter regularly living with us there can now be 4 cars outside our house! 

What about flying? Some of us have family in Australia or British Columbia. Are we prepared to limit our visits and seeing grandparents and grandchildren? 

Some of us have missional connections across the world. Might we have to limit short term mission trips? 

When we travel to visit family across the UK are we prepared to take the least environmental damaging way?

Are we prepared to eat less red meat to save forests and are we willing to buy local produce at a higher cost or do without specialised fruit that comes from thousands of miles away. We love our avocados! 

We need to understand that the decisions that we are demanding from our leaders actually happen that it is going to curtail our lifestyles. We cannot ask for them to act and then vote against them at elections because the decisions that we demanded make our lives seem less. 

The world leaders at COP26 have no magic wand on saving our planet, God’s precious art as some of us describe it. The catastrophe we are in will need massive once in a generation decisions from our world leaders BUT also a total commitment to small everyday decisions from us and a declaration of our willingness to take the hit on our way of life to leave a world for our grandchildren. 

Marching is easy… before we march… what are we prayed to sacrifice to save the planet. 

COP26 - BELFAST PRAYER GATHERING AND MARCH THIS SATURDAY

 

You cannot miss COP26 this week.

 

On Saturday there will be big marches in many cities to encourage the political leaders to act. In Belfast the march gathers at Cornmarket at 12. Before that at 10.45am, on May Street, Christian Aid, EA, Tearfund and 24/7 Prayer are leading a prayer and worship time.

 

I spoke to Lucy Hill one of the organisers of the prayer time to get some sense of the purpose and why we should go.

 

Lucy, why is COP26 so vital that you are calling people to pray and march 

 

This week, the UK is hosting the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow. Governments of practically every country will come together to make plans for tackling the climate crisis. The situation regarding climate change is beyond urgent, described by the UN as ‘code red’ - COP26 is seen by many to be our last chance to make vital decisions that will make a difference in the accelerating crisis that is putting millions of lives at risk worldwide. 

 

What exactly is going to happen at May Street at 10.45am

 

On Saturday morning we want to begin by gathering to pray and worship. We strongly believe that prayer is crucial for bringing breakthrough in the climate emergency. First, it’s right and appropriate to lament the destruction and injustice of the climate crisis, to recognise where we, as individuals, nations, businesses and the church, have fallen short and to repent of our part in it and then to focus on the specific asks of COP26 and to ask God, by His Holy Spirit to lead those in power to make the right decisions and commitments. From May Street we will join in with others from across NI to march to demonstrate our solidarity with those worst affected by climate change and to demand action. 

 

Why would you encourage Christians to come out? 

 

24/7 Prayer, along with the other organisations involved, believe that the climate crisis is a justice issue - those in the world who are least responsible are those who are being the worst affected by climate change and the reality is that it is often the cost of our lifestyles in the developed world that is largely contributing to the crisis. The church cannot ignore this crisis which is causing so much suffering to people living in poverty. God calls us to meet their needs – in so doing to help build his kingdom on earth.

 

The devastating impact of rising temperatures, more extreme weather conditions and rapidly depleting resources is leading to loss of livelihoods, extreme poverty and hunger and conflict and displacement.  As Christians not only have we been given a mandate to care for the world that God created but in a globalised world we must consider the ways we can truly love our neighbour in the Global South. 

 

 

Can we effect the events in Glasgow? 

 

This is how advocacy works - the more voices we can add to demand action the better. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Christians and churches lead the way in standing up for justice for our global neighbours? We’ve seen time and time again that when we raise our voices together, decision-makers take action and situations can change for people in poverty. Churches across the world have the potential to hold those in power to account and demand change. 

 

What do you think the Church as communities and individuals can do, when we get up off our knees in order to answer our prayers? 

 

Change is needed across the board - from government policies to every day action by individuals, families and communities. The issue seems huge but every small action can make a difference - perhaps as Christians in the developed world it’s time to ask ourselves some big questions regarding the lifestyles we lead and the ways in which our flourishing is affecting the flourishing of others. We can make changes in our own lives, such as reducing our energy consumption and our waste, and thinking more carefully about what we buy and that’s just for starters. Churches could also start to think about how to move towards more sustainable ways of operating - looking at renewable energy, recycling, printing less materials etc. 

 

If you’d like to explore these issues in more detail - both practically and theologically then check out https://ruthvalerio.net