Letter from Clare
I had only ever come across the word “tsunami”, once in my life before, and that was in the Daily Telegraph Crossword some time last year. Mark dredged it from the depths of his grey matter, the crossword was finished and the word was filed away in my brain, for the next time. Sadly, now, even the youngest of our children have heard the word and seen on our TV screens the reality and the devastation that a tsunami can bring. Without exception our hearts and minds have gone out to those whose lives have been devastated, those who have been traumatised, and those bereaved, especially the children left as orphans. The response of the British public has been phenomenal, and thank God for it, but it has left me with questions.
Today in the paper is a front-page photograph of a distressed Nelson Mandela, grieving the loss of his last surviving son from AIDS. The statistics of death from AIDS in Africa alone are mind blowing, it is pandemic, not just epidemic. Every single day, 15,000 more people contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, every day at least 600 people die of AIDS, in S. Africa alone. There are more than 25 million people living in sub Saharan Africa with HIV/AIDS. 14 million children have lost one or both parents to the disease. I am very afraid that our generous giving as a nation and world will impact upon our other charitable giving, where the needs are just as desperate.
I write this in the season of Epiphany, when we remember the story of the Magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus; the story of Epiphany is also a story of light, God’s gift to the nations. I ask myself the question, “In what ways is my money good news to others?” because for me that is one of the challenges of the Epiphany story, a story which also is about things being turned on their heads, wise sages worshipping a helpless baby in a dirty stable, star gazers bending down to consider the things of the earth.
Money and giving is only part of the picture, this year we as a country host the G8 Summit meeting, and there is a large campaign mounting to put pressure on the G8 countries to renounce “world debt”. The campaign is called “Make poverty history” and was launched by The Vicar of Dibley in her New Years Day TV show. All the women clergy have been summoned to a rally in Downing Street on Jan 14th, along with Dawn French to bring the campaign to the public eye. Sadly I can’t go, I’m committed to a task that day that I can’t get out of but I do care, and I feel we all have a chance to do something and make our voice heard. So many people said to me “I had just got to send something, do something” when the news of the tsunami hit, now is the chance to do something for the poor of the world, by adding your voice to the governments of the G8 nations, by signing a petition that can be found in our churches and by continuing to look at the way in which we use our money, to ensure that it is Good News, not just for ourselves but for the world.
Clare Sanders