Category: Sandy’s Comments

The world faces a global crisis on food exacerbated and brought to the fore by the war in Ukraine, but humanity can and must take remedial steps in economic and climate justice, a World Council of Churches-led meeting has heard.

(published 27th May 2022 on World Council of Churches website)

Dr David Nabarro, special envoy of the World Health Organization on COVID-19, urged the church and civil society leaders to act now in the briefing with participants from different parts of the world, particularly Africa.

After an introduction by Dr Manoj Kurian, coordinator of the WCC-Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Nabarro cautioned, “that we don’t look back on 2022 as the year where there was a crisis of civilization, because building on the pandemic, humanity just could not find a way to promote equity, the realization of rights, and the wellbeing of not just people, but our beautiful planet.”

“So, we can offer it to future generations as a place of hope and growth,” said Nabarro.

The WHO envoy said he became aware in the middle of last year, “listening to many ministers of agriculture, coming together at a meeting in Rome in July, just one after the other saying it’s not working, climate change, COVID-19 and conflict are making the food security of our peoples really disturbing.”

Trade systems not working

Nabarro cited global trade systems not working, countries dependent on imports because of the COVID-19 crisis, and unable to get what they need.

He said, “Farmers, because of climate change and COVID-19, particularly smallholder farmers and fishers, cannot produce what they need.”

Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of Communication, outlined the current trigger of a crisis.

“The world faces a food crisis triggered by war in a major breadbasket area of the world, making many other places face acute hunger, but the planet faced a food crunch before the war in Ukraine started,” said Ejdersten.

“A new global crisis is emerging from the war in Ukraine, with the potential to cause millions of people to go hungry, push food prices higher and spark unrest far from the conflict zone,” Ejdersten said. She highlighted that 811 million people go to bed hungry every night.

“Together. Russia and Ukraine account for more than a quarter of the global wheat supplies exporting to countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, and Somalia, among many other countries,” said Ejdersten. “These are the most vulnerable populations in the world.”

Sofía Monsalve Suárez,  secretary-general of FIAN International, the international human rights organization for the right to food and nutrition, said it is essential to look at when the crisis started.

“We have been in crisis since 2007, if you want if you remember the first big food crisis that we had, at that time,” said Monsalve Suárez. “And it’s the structural drivers of this food crisis, for instance, the inequality in terms of controlling land and natural resources, the inequalities in terms of tax justice, the issue of debt, has been mentioned.”

Dismantling capacity

The FIAN leader accused the World Bank and many international financial institutions of convincing countries and forcing them to dismantle their national capacity to produce food, store food and have public food programmes for distribution for schools and the like.

“Therefore, they were told it is better to rely on the global market. But now, since COVID-19, we have seen that these global food supply chains are extremely vulnerable to these eruptions, because of climate conditions, or because of geopolitical and war issues, as we see now,” said Monsalve Suárez.

Dr Thorsten Göbel, director of Programmes for the ACT Alliance,  spoke on the global impact of the crisis on humanitarian responses and where hunger is strongly felt.

“We’ve heard or seen from ACT members that this has been particularly the case in conflict-ridden countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Afghanistan or Syria,” said Göbel.

Mervyn Abrahams of the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and  Dignity Group spoke on the national situation in South Africa.

“We have seen food prices spike since the beginning of COVID-19. And that has continued. So yes, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has sharpened the spike. But the issue around increasing food prices has been with us for quite a while,” said Abrahams. He noted that food availability is not a problem in South Africa, an exporter and that prices outstripping earnings are hitting the most vulnerable communities.

Impact on children

However, he said, “We have seen, in South Africa, it was reported that 199 children under the age of five in our public hospital system have died as a direct result of malnutrition in only the first two months of this year.”

Prof. Dr Esther Mombo of the theology department at St Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya.

And yet the Kenyan theologian reminded that “the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people has some lessons for us as we face the hunger crisis in different parts of the world.”

She said, “There is enough food to feed everybody in the world.

When Jesus saw a crowd of people, he told his disciples to give them food. When we provide food to the hungry, we are not doing them a favour, but acting as expected of us by God, as God’s people through Jesus Christ.”

The presence of Christ, turning the world upside down. “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matthew 2:3)

Scripture

• 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5, But the Lord is faithful, he will strengthen you.
• Matthew 2:1-5, He was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Meditation

Christ’s coming disturbs the ways of the world. In contrast to so many political leaders, the Lord comes in humility denouncing the evil of injustice and oppression that accompanies the ambition for power and status. Jesus’ presence creates disturbance precisely because He rocks the boat of those rich and the powerful that work only for their own interests and neglect the common good. But, for those who work for peace and unity, Christ’s coming brings the light of hope.

We all need to acknowledge the instances when our ways are not God’s ways of justice and peace. When Christians work together for justice and peace our efforts are more powerful. And when Christians work together in this way, the answer to our prayer for Christian unity is made visible such that others recognize in us Christ’s presence in the world today. The Good News is that God is faithful, and he is always the one strengthening us and protecting us from harm, and inspiring us to work for the good of others, especially those living in the darkness of suffering, hatred, violence and pain.

Prayer

O Lord, you have illumined the star of hope in our lives. Help us to be united in our commitment to bring about your Reign of love, justice and peace and so to be the light of hope to all those living in the dark- ness of despair and disillusionment. Shine your light upon us and set our hearts on fire so that your love surrounds us with warmth. Lift us up to you, you who have emptied yourself for our sake, so that our lives may glorify you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

(Source: Franciscan Friars of the Atonement)

Humble leadership breaks down walls and builds up with love. “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2)

Scripture

• Philippians 2:5-11, Who… did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.
• Matthew 20:20-28, The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

Meditation

Jeremiah denounces the bad leadership of the kings of Israel who divided and scattered the people. In contrast, the Lord promises a shepherd-king who will “execute justice and righteousness in the land” and gather together the members of his flock.

Our world craves good leadership and is constantly seeking someone who will fulfill this desire. Only in Christ have we seen the example of a king or leader after God’s heart. As we are called to follow him, we are also called to emulate his way of servant-kingship in the world and in the Church. In Christ we encounter one who does not tear down and divide but builds up and makes whole for the glory of God’s name. He is one who comes to serve, rather than be served, and his followers are called to do the same.

Today, the Middle East is experiencing the loss of its people to exile as “righteousness and justice” are becoming scarce commodities not only there but throughout the world.

Leaders, both in the world and in the Church, have responsibility to bring together rather than to scatter or divide the people of God. The more faithfully Christians emulate the servant leadership of Christ, the more division in both the world and the Church will be overcome.

Prayer

God, our only refuge and strength, help us to seek our Lord Jesus Christ not in the palaces of the powerful but in the humble manger and to emulate him in his meekness. Encourage us to empty ourselves as we serve each other in obedience to you.
We pray in the name of Christ who with you and with the Holy Spirit reigns forever in glory. Amen.

(Source: Franciscan Friars of the Atonement)

Sunday 29th May
Raise us up and draw us to your perfect light. “We observed his star in the East.”(Matthew 2:2)

Scripture

• 2 Timothy 1:7-10, This grace… has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus.
• John 16:7-14, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Meditation

In this fragile and uncertain world, we look for a light, a ray of hope from afar. In the midst of evil, we long for goodness. Our confidence rests in the God we worship. God, in wisdom, enabled us to hope for divine intervention; but we had not anticipated that God’s intervention would be a person, and that the Lord himself would be the light in our midst. This exceeded all our expectations. God’s gift to us is a “spirit of power, and love.”

In the midst of humanity’s darkness, the star from the East shone. The star’s light was not only an illumination at a particular historical moment but it continues to shine and change the face of human history. Despite the vicissitudes of history and the changing of circumstances, the Risen One continues to shine, moving within the flow of history like a beacon guiding all into this perfect light and overcoming the darkness which separates us from one another.

The desire to overcome the darkness that separates us compels us to pray and work for Christian unity.

Prayer

Lord God, illumine our path by the light of Christ who moves us and leads us. Guide us to discover a small manger in our hearts where a great light still sleeps. Creator of light, we thank you for the gift of that unfading Star, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Heal our divisions and draw us closer to the Light that we may find our unity in him. Amen.

(Source: Franciscan Friars of the Atonement)

The Autumn 2022 issue of Zadok Perspectives and Papers is on ‘Public Speaking’. Though basically intra-Christian, includes a fine article by famed Jewish ABC broadcaster Rachael Kohn in dialogue with a range of religious authors on Fear and Faith, reviving the notion that if you fear God you need fear no other. And Megan Powell-du Toit’s imagery of Jesus’ death tearing the Temple curtain of Jew-Gentile, priestly-lay and male-female divides has powerful public impact. We have a finely nuanced review essay by Nathan Campbell on Stephen McAlpine’s Being the Good Bad Guys, which deservedly won the Australian Christian Book of the Year Award. McAlpine critiques the Missional Church movement from which he comes, for expecting that once the barbaric cultural and colonial barnacles of Christendom were cleared from its hull it would be allowed fair passage and mooring rights into now secularised harbours, cities, universities and media. (And much more – read more here).

(adapted from the Ethos blog article by Gordon Preece)

7th May is World Labyrinth Day. It is an annual event sponsored by The Labyrinth Society as a worldwide action to “walk as one at 1” local time to create a rolling wave of peaceful energy across the globe.

Every year on the first Saturday in May (in 2022 it will be 7th May), thousands of people around the world participate in this moving meditation for world peace.

In this time of war and conflict in so many countries, perhaps making space for intentional walking for peace may be a small but positive response to our fractured world. If there’s no labyrinth close to you, consider a ‘slow mindful walk’ instead.

Inner peace, outer peace.

Labyrinths in Melbourne and Victoria

Labyrinth prayer – a brief history
In A.D. 324 Christians placed a labyrinth on the floor of their church in Algiers. Although Christians must have been using the labyrinth earlier, this is the first historical record we have of the Christian use of the labyrinth. Since that time labyrinths have been prayed, studied, danced, traced and drawn as Christians have sought to use this spiritual tool to draw closer to God.

Using the labyrinth involves moving one’s body and opening one’s heart to Jesus. All you have to do is follow the path and you will find the center. Unlike a maze the labyrinth has no tricks in it. A “typical” labyrinth experience involves preparing oneself at the threshold, following the single path to the center, spending time in the center, following the same pathway out the threshold and then responding to the experience.
If this is your first encounter with the labyrinth you may wonder, “What is the correct way for me to do this?” Relax! Pray on the labyrinth the way you like to pray in other places. Have a conversation with God about the things that matter most to you, offer words and gestures of praise, or present your prayer requests to Christ; there is no “right” way to pray just as there is no “right” way to pray the labyrinth! If you still aren’t sure how to get started, simply repeat, “Thy will be done” as you move on the labyrinth. Another simple way to pray the labyrinth is to pray for others on the way in, enjoy God’s presence in the center and pray for yourself as you move back towards the threshold.
The word “labyrinth” is not found in the Bible, but themes of a following God’s way, spiritual journeys, and enjoying God’s presence—all central to labyrinth experiences—are found throughout Scripture. Two verses that can be used while praying the labyrinth are, “You show me the path of life, In your presence there is fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11) and Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth and the life…” (John 14:6).
We are currently in a period of historic labyrinth revival. Churches, retreat centers and Christian camps are placing these prayer tools inside and outside. Christians all over the world are installing labyrinths in their yards and gardens. Many are using the labyrinths as a ministry tool, bringing portable versions to prisons, national denominational conferences and church group meetings.
Many people are being drawn closer to Jesus, experiencing healing and gaining spiritual clarity as they pray on its path.

Walking the Labyrinth – a prayer
To your open mouth we come, pausing with expectancy. Posing questions, praying dreams, gath’ring courage, hope and faith, Circle, you hold life indeed. With thanksgiving we proceed.
Stepping in, the way is sure, Pacing comes in its own time. Breathing slows, awareness dawns, Trusting, longing fill our hearts. Pathway, you hold life indeed. With thanksgiving we proceed.
In the center we are held, deeply knowing, deeply known. Healing, wholeness rising up, Wisdom, insight overflow. Center, you hold life indeed. With thanksgiving we proceed.
Back we go, the way we came, Weaving, winding in and out. Moving t’ward the world beyond, Op’ning hearts to needs perceiv’d. Pathway, you hold life indeed. With thanksgiving we proceed.
Once outside we gaze within, wond’ring at the peace we know. Spending moments filled with awe, taking leave with strength renewed. Circle, you hold life indeed. With thanksgiving we proceed.
Text: Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion ©1998

“Easter is a celebration of life,” the letter reads. “In order to celebrate life all people need to flourish, but we acknowledge that Australians have been enduring dark days – with droughts, bushfires, severe storms and massive floods.”

The church leaders reflect that damage to the climate is a key contributing factor to these disasters. “Yet among these shared struggles there is Easter, a message of hope,” the letter reads. “The greater challenge of preventing such disasters in the future requires systemic transformation.”

The letter urges government leaders to heed the advice of climate experts to reduce carbon emissions.

“Churches along with other institutions in civil society and the business community must examine our own practices so we can help reverse damage to the climate,” reads the letter.

Among the signatories of the letter is Bishop Philip Huggins, director of the Centre for Ecumenical Studies at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.

He joins other churches leaders in urging Australia’s government leaders to stop the nation’s climate change isolationism.

“Consistent with the purposes of the Paris Agreement, Australia now has obligations with a timeline,” reflected Huggins. “You would not know this from current pre-election discourse.”

Huggins believes the obligations are entirely sensible. “There is no hiding place from the consequences of climate change,” he said. “We must contain carbon emissions if we are to prevent global temperatures rising beyond the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement.”

Yet Australian politicians are not yet connected with this reality, Huggins added. “The justice issue is that those who have had least to do with causing climate change will continue to suffer the worst consequences,” he said. “That includes our own young people as well as our neighbours in the Pacific.”

On a personal level, Huggins said he looks at his grandchildren and fears for their future. “We are still in the early days of this election campaign,” he said. “The politics around climate change must become more just and more internationally responsible.”

Huggings insisted that proceeding on a path that feeds global warming would be extraordinarily stupid as well as unjust. 

“More inspired leadership, in coming weeks, would give our young people and our Pacific neighbours the possibility of real optimism and hope for the future,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful!”

Source: WCC News

All Pharaohs Must Fall: 

Some Thoughts About the Passover Holiday

By Rabbi Brant Rosen, Tzedek Chicago

This Passover, I thought a great deal about the exceedingly radical message at the heart of the story we tell and retell around the seder table every year.

In particular, I thought about what the story tells us about power, about the ways the powerful wield their power against the less powerful, and about the inevitability of corrupt power’s eventual fall. And I’m thinking about what is possibly the most radical message of all: that there is a Power greater, yes even greater than human power.

Empires, of course, have perennially failed to heed this message. Powerful empires have come and gone, but the Power that Makes for Liberation still manages to live to fight another day. Will the Pharaohs among us ever learn?

There’s no getting around the fact that the Passover story is not a neat, tidy or particularly pleasant story. That’s because – as we all know too well – the powerful never give up their power without a fight. No one ever made this point better or more eloquently than Frederick Douglass when he said in 1857:

The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

A century later, Dr. Martin Luther King said much the same thing in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”:

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Passover thus poses a special challenge to those who wield power and privilege. What would it mean if the powerful truly took to heart our tradition’s most challenging teachings: that God hears the cries of the enslaved, that God is a God of Liberation, that God stands with the oppressed, not the oppressor and demands that we do as well?

As well: are those who benefit from Empire prepared to confront the ways this power is wielded in any number of oppressive ways at home and abroad? Might we possibly be willing to contemplate this truth: that even the mightiest Empire will eventually, inevitably go the way of history?

Indeed, if there is any message we learn from Passover, it’s that, to paraphrase the words of poet Kevin Coval, all Pharaohs must eventually fall:

Wake in this new day
we will all die soon
let us live while we have the chance
while we have this day
to build and plot and devise
to create and make the world
just
this time for us
this time for all
this time the pharaohs must fall

May the Passover story inspire us all to be bearers of that vision in our lives and in our world. 

An Open Letter to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, Moscow
From The Rev. Dr Keith Clements

8 March 2022

Your Holiness,

I greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

During these recent days I have been recalling very clearly the visit which in May 1999 Your Holiness and I together with other church and ecumenical figures made to Belgrade. We met with President Milosevic to present and discuss with him a proposal, drawn up by the Vienna Group of which both of us were members, for ending the conflict over Kosovo. Belgrade at that time was under aerial bombardment by NATO forces. In Belgrade and elsewhere we saw at first hand the effects of such attacks and our visit involved not a little danger to ourselves. But we went willingly, with the aim of contributing towards a cessation of hostilities and the creation of an opportunity for peace. This remains with me as a very positive memory of ecumenical fellowship in pursuit of peace, for which I am deeply grateful.

Today, in Ukraine, we are witnessing attacks on a country and its people, on a far greater scale than anything seen in Europe since 1945. This time, it has to be said in plain truth and in sorrow, the military operations are being carried out not by NATO but by Russian forces under the orders of President Putin. The devastation being wreaked upon Ukraine, its people and its infrastructure, the displacement and flight of civilians now being numbered by the million, are being witnessed by the whole world. It is a situation which cannot be justified by any Christian spirit or conscience, and for the sake of the people of Ukraine and of Russia must be ended without delay.

In the same spirit which led us to visit Belgrade in 1999, I appeal to you for a word which acknowledges and addresses this situation in terms befitting a great Church of Jesus Christ. Thus far, we in the world outside have heard words about the desire for peace, but not about the things that make for peace: first of all an acknowledgment of the wrong that is being committed against the people of Ukraine, without which no genuine movement towards peace can begin. It is known that there are voices in your Church and in other Christian communities in Russia, which are already expressing these aspirations towards repentance and the hope which repentance brings. I and others hope and pray that you will hear, defend and uphold them.

Many of us are well aware of the real historical factors which are involved in the relationship of Russia and Ukraine. We also realise that all countries, including those in the West, will need to reflect on their policies in Europe over recent decades, and be ready to learn from past mistakes. Moreover we are aware of the constraints which Your Holiness experiences, as leader of a Church with such close ties to the Russian state. But ‘the word of God is not chained’ (2 Timothy 2:9) and history shows us that there are moments when the Church is challenged to confess, perhaps at great cost but greatly strengthening its witness to the love of God for all people, where its truest and highest allegiance lies. Christians are called to place above all claims of earthly powers their loyalty to Jesus Christ to whom alone ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given’ (Matthew 28:18).

With all those who eagerly await such a word from you, and with continuing prayers for the guidance and inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit upon Your Holiness, I remain,

In Christ,

Keith Clements

Former General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches 1997-2005

Keith Clement is former General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, 1997-2005.