LETTER FROM THE ECUMENICAL MODERATOR
christian aid
MURDOCH MACKENZIE
may 2002
Dear Friends,
During this year we are encouraging each other to support CAFOD though the Family Fast Day which was held on 22nd February and TEAR FUND which we will do in the autumn. This month of May as a Mission Partnership we are encouraging all churches to support CHRISTIAN AID WEEK and all Christians to join in collecting for Christian Aid from 12th - 18th May. If we can double the number of collectors from all churches Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Protestant we could probably double the amount of money which we raise. Even if you have never collected before please think about doing so this year. Let this not just be 'another Christian Aid Week' but let it be for each one of us a special offering of our own life to God, because it is in a very real sense part of our own salvation that we give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. 'Inasmuch as you do it to one of the least of these' says Jesus, 'you do it to me'. Jesus Christ is the friend of the poor and calls us to be with him where he is alongside them.
For the first 12 years of my ministry I worked alongside some of the poorest people on earth from whom I received much. I have buried little babies afflicted by great knots of worms in their intestines. I have seen hundreds of mud huts burned to the ground in twenty minutes and been deeply involved in feeding programmes and re-housing. I have been up to my waist in flood-waters passing little babies and children from hand to hand in a human chain. I have been involved in digging tube-wells and ring-wells, in negotiating with banks for loans for cattle and for catamarans and fishing nets, in work amongst leprosy sufferers, in socio-economic projects for stitching clothes, making leather goods, weaving straw and plastic bags, grinding and packaging nutritious foods, in integrated community development work providing mobile clinics, adult education, schools for children, brick-making, artificial insemination for cattle and prawn fishing. The first church I worked in was a mud hut with a roof of coconut leaves, built on the city garbage tip, and as I broke the bread and poured the wine on a Sunday morning I could see through the open door poor people scavenging amongst the rubbish. I used to think that it was a very appropriate place to break the bread as it was on a garbage heap that Jesus was crucified. As George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, used to say: ' Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candlesticks but on a rubbish tip between two thieves. '
Were you there when they crucified my Lord ? Does it make you want to tremble, tremble, tremble ? Were you there when they crucified my Lord ? To have been there on the rubbish-tip with the poor is an experience which can never be forgotten. Christian Aid Week gives each one of us an opportunity to be there as we strain every muscle to collect the money, to raise people's awareness of the state of the world, and to remember and reflect for the good of our own souls that there are so many places both at home and abroad where Jesus is being crucified today. Let it not just be ' another Christian Aid Week ' but let each of us, and all of us, go the extra mile and get out there and collect as much as we possibly can. Statistics can be endless but let's remember that in India more women die in pregnancy each week than in Europe each year, that only 10% of international research on health is focused on diseases which affect 90% of the world's population and that in Zambia in just 10 months 1,300 teachers died of AIDS. In the global village we who are so affluent cannot pretend that the rest of the world does not exist. Let us be like the Good Samaritan and not like those who passed by on the other side.
This year Christian Aid Week is focusing on the Trade for Life Campaign. Already 58 British MPs have pledged themselves to support the campaign. On Wednesday 19th June we are being asked by Christian Aid to go to Parliament in London to tell our M.P.s that we want changes in the way world trade is run. Trade for Life Action Packs are available free from Christian Aid, PO Box 95, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU12 4BR or telephone 08700 787 788 or visit the website www.christianaid.org.uk/campaign.
Let us each and all make an impact for Trade Justice this month.
Murdoch MacKenzie
During this year we are encouraging each other to support CAFOD though the Family Fast Day which was held on 22nd February and TEAR FUND which we will do in the autumn. This month of May as a Mission Partnership we are encouraging all churches to support CHRISTIAN AID WEEK and all Christians to join in collecting for Christian Aid from 12th - 18th May. If we can double the number of collectors from all churches Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Protestant we could probably double the amount of money which we raise. Even if you have never collected before please think about doing so this year. Let this not just be 'another Christian Aid Week' but let it be for each one of us a special offering of our own life to God, because it is in a very real sense part of our own salvation that we give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. 'Inasmuch as you do it to one of the least of these' says Jesus, 'you do it to me'. Jesus Christ is the friend of the poor and calls us to be with him where he is alongside them.
For the first 12 years of my ministry I worked alongside some of the poorest people on earth from whom I received much. I have buried little babies afflicted by great knots of worms in their intestines. I have seen hundreds of mud huts burned to the ground in twenty minutes and been deeply involved in feeding programmes and re-housing. I have been up to my waist in flood-waters passing little babies and children from hand to hand in a human chain. I have been involved in digging tube-wells and ring-wells, in negotiating with banks for loans for cattle and for catamarans and fishing nets, in work amongst leprosy sufferers, in socio-economic projects for stitching clothes, making leather goods, weaving straw and plastic bags, grinding and packaging nutritious foods, in integrated community development work providing mobile clinics, adult education, schools for children, brick-making, artificial insemination for cattle and prawn fishing. The first church I worked in was a mud hut with a roof of coconut leaves, built on the city garbage tip, and as I broke the bread and poured the wine on a Sunday morning I could see through the open door poor people scavenging amongst the rubbish. I used to think that it was a very appropriate place to break the bread as it was on a garbage heap that Jesus was crucified. As George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, used to say: ' Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candlesticks but on a rubbish tip between two thieves. '
Were you there when they crucified my Lord ? Does it make you want to tremble, tremble, tremble ? Were you there when they crucified my Lord ? To have been there on the rubbish-tip with the poor is an experience which can never be forgotten. Christian Aid Week gives each one of us an opportunity to be there as we strain every muscle to collect the money, to raise people's awareness of the state of the world, and to remember and reflect for the good of our own souls that there are so many places both at home and abroad where Jesus is being crucified today. Let it not just be ' another Christian Aid Week ' but let each of us, and all of us, go the extra mile and get out there and collect as much as we possibly can. Statistics can be endless but let's remember that in India more women die in pregnancy each week than in Europe each year, that only 10% of international research on health is focused on diseases which affect 90% of the world's population and that in Zambia in just 10 months 1,300 teachers died of AIDS. In the global village we who are so affluent cannot pretend that the rest of the world does not exist. Let us be like the Good Samaritan and not like those who passed by on the other side.
This year Christian Aid Week is focusing on the Trade for Life Campaign. Already 58 British MPs have pledged themselves to support the campaign. On Wednesday 19th June we are being asked by Christian Aid to go to Parliament in London to tell our M.P.s that we want changes in the way world trade is run. Trade for Life Action Packs are available free from Christian Aid, PO Box 95, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU12 4BR or telephone 08700 787 788 or visit the website www.christianaid.org.uk/campaign.
Let us each and all make an impact for Trade Justice this month.
Murdoch MacKenzie