Gallery

Orsett's Nativity at the Pound on YouTube

Images of Ed and Richard's 2009 Canterbury Pilgrimage

Haiti Earthquake

HAITI

As I write this article, emergency workers are rushing to Haiti from all over the world to assist in earthquake recovery work. Donations are pouring into charities in amounts that haven't been seen since the Boxing Day Tsunami tragedy. Our response to human tragedy no longer takes into consideration geography, race, or creed. At times like this, we remember that we are all brothers and sisters on this fragile planet. Or, at least, we should. Especially through the church.

At the beginning of January, our Archbishop Rowan Williams gave a very moving New Year's message. In it he spoke of "visiting a new academy in Scunthorpe named after St Lawrence. Lawrence was a Christian minister in Rome in the days when you could be arrested and executed for being a Christian, nineteen hundred years ago or so. When he was arrested, he was told to collect all the treasures of the Church to be given up to the courts. He got together all the homeless, the orphans and the hungry that the Church looked after in the city, and presented them to his judges, saying, 'These are the Church's treasures.'"

Rowan asked, "So what about a New Year in which we try and ask consistently about our own personal decisions and about public policies, national and international, 'Does this feel like something that looks after our real treasure, something that keeps our real wealth safe - the lives and welfare of the youngest and most vulnerable?' Jesus said where our treasure is, that's where our hearts will be. Our hearts will be in a very bad way if they're focused only on the state of our finances. They'll be healthy if they are capable of turning outwards, looking at the real treasure that is our fellow human beings." He encourages all of us to think of people around the world as our close family - wouldn't our reactions to their problems be very different if we actually did that? How much closer would that bring us to Jesus's instructions to us?

There is so much tragedy in the world - both on a large scale, like the Haitian earthquake, and on a small scale within individual lives - that charities tell us many people suffer from something they call "charity fatigue". Too many calls upon our resources, both financial and emotional. It can indeed be overwhelming in the comfort of our own homes watching tragedies on television. How would we possibly feel if we had to deal with it directly? Archbishop Rowan called upon us to always think of victims as members of our own family when we respond. We all have a part to play, but we don't want to forget our reliance upon God in the process. Recently I found a little prayer which might help:

As individuals, we need to do our best to help - and part, but only part, of that help consists of our prayers.

Your brother in Christ,

Ed

Contacts

Rector

Revd Edward W. Hanson

Hon. Asst. Priest

Canon Glyn Jones

Associate Priest

Revd Max (Steven) Blake

Assistant Curate

Revd Michèle Marshall