80 Years of Christian Aid
A guest post by Green Christian member, Edward Gildea
I was honoured and surprised to be invited to a reception and service in Cambridge in May to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Christian Aid.
I wasn’t quite sure why I’d been invited. Had they explored their archives and discovered that my father was a director of Christian Aid in the 60’s and 70’s? I remember him organising the street collections around the parishes of South Norwood when I was a child. He was a great believer in “Practical Christianity”, putting aside any thoughts of an afterlife while there were practical things to do amongst our neighbours, near and far. He would have been passionate about Climate Justice!
The highlight of the inspirational service was the sermon by Rowan Williams. He started with the concept of the “New Normals” that confront us: after the 2008 bank crash, after covid and now in the new Trumpian era. How do these recurrent “Normals” fit with our deep-seated Christian values of justice and love? Or our moral compass?
His sermon was deeply political: not because he discussed politics, but because he explored the values that underpin politics and global relations. The new normals of “I will be safe if I make my enemy fearful of me”; “I will serve my national self-interest by attacking or compromising the interests of other nations”.
He celebrated the aspirations of Christian Aid, founded, amazingly, the day after VE day at Westminster Abbey, when the first collection was held. What a seminal moment! How determined we were to build a better, fairer world out of the horrors of the war! The NHS, the Education Act, Social Security, Council Houses…
My father too, having fought in the Navy, became a committed internationalist, as my grandfather had done after the 1st World War. Working in the Board of Trade and then the DTI, he did what he could to promote fair, non-exploitative trade but sadly expressed a weariness in his retirement speech in the mid 80’s that so much of that work was being replaced by another “new normal”.
At my own church Christian Aid week passed very quietly. The clergy made no mention of it; our door-to-door collections ended with Covid and only 7 envelopes were filled in the Sunday services. Thankfully these were by wonderfully generous people who are still clearly aware of wider, global needs.
However hard times are, Christian Aid is there to remind us who our neighbour truly is. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ tells us that our neighbour is the stranger, the foreigner; the one of a different culture and religion whom we should love as we do ourselves.
I don’t think either Rowan Williams, or those who work for Christian Aid and who give to it, or my father, subscribe to the notion of “charity begins at home”. Surely that, by definition, is where self interest begins. And, it would seem, the “new normal”.
Edward Gildea writes magazine articles for his local church, St Mary’s, Saffron Walden in north west Essex, each month.
Comments on "80 Years of Christian Aid"
No comments found.Add your own comment to "80 Years of Christian Aid"
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Next: Tree Planting in Masaka
Previous: Let’s Ban Trophy Hunting
Leave a Reply