Anglican Communion News Service
ACNS 4234 | LAMBETH | 01 JANUARY 2007
Archbishop of
31st December 2006
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has said that we need to
feel the same hunger for justice that ended the slave trade if the world is
to be changed for the better. Speaking in his New Year message, broadcast on
BBC Television in the
he drew on the example of William Wilberforce to urge people to act to
change the world.
"Jesus talks about being hungry and thirsty for righteousness, for justice.
And if we hear that in the way it's surely meant, we have to conclude that
he means that we should feel there's something missing in us, something
taken away from us, when another person, near or far away, has to face need
and suffering. We get to be ourselves only when we wake up to them and their
needs."
The message was filmed in
Shopping centre in Wandsworth,
during his visit to World Food projects in
said regarded the slave trade as making the whole of humanity less than
human:
"People like William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton felt they were made less
human than they should be by the appalling injustice of the slave trade.
They felt a hunger for justice - a sense of being spiritually impoverished -
"undernourished" because of slavery.
People, he said, may feel overwhelmed or even bored by constant appeals, but
change could only come if people were moved to act:
"When we look at the familiar images of other people's suffering, do we feel
a void inside ourselves, a yearning for something different and a conviction
that it needn't be like this? That's where change begins. And it's one of
the differences that faith can make; faith in God and in people. It's worth
remembering this year those who struggled to do away with the slave trade.
If we lived in a society that tolerated slavery now, wouldn't we feel soiled
and diminished by it? Wouldn't we feel hungry for something different? So
what are the things today that make us feel the same?"
ENDS
Notes
The broadcast was first aired on New Year's Eve on BBC 2 at 20000hrs and
repeated on BBC 1 at 1245 hrs on New Year's Day.
The footage from
southern
their only solid meal of the day. In nearby Obel, a food distribution point
supports families seeking to re-establish themselves on their farmland,
having been displaced by conflict.
The Church featured is Holy Trinity Clapham, the home of the Clapham Sect,
which included reformers William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton.
The shopping centre featured is the Arndale Shopping Centre in Wandsworth,
The full text of the message is below.
Here in this
January sales are well underway - after a Christmas when many of us probably
spent more than we should and eaten more than we should . It's all in stark
contrast to
The local church feeds several hundred each day, using its school as the
feeding point where the World Food Programme's supplies can be distributed.
Centres like this are few and far between - and the World Food Programme is
already warning that resources are running out.
We all respond as best we can to one emergency appeal after another. And we
feel just a bit guilty as we acknowledge that we're almost bored by yet
another appeal - yet another set of pictures of suffering children in need.
It's true that endless appeals lose their impact. Information - statistics,
won't really motivate us; The only thing that makes a difference is if we
get to see those faces and figures as somehow about us - not just Them.
It's when the hunger or the homelessness or the loneliness of someone else
becomes something that I feel for myself as an affront - something that
makes me less of a person.
In the Bible, Jesus talks about being hungry and thirsty for righteousness,
for justice. And if we hear that in the way it's surely meant, we have to
conclude that he means that we should feel there's something missing in us,
something taken away from us, when another person, near or far away, has to
face need and suffering. We get to be ourselves only when we wake up to them
and their needs.
2007 marks two hundred years since the slave trade was abolished. Here at
Holy Trinity Clapham - a group of Christians called the "Clapham Sect" were
at the forefront of the fight to end the slave trade.
People like William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton felt they were made less
human than they should be by the appalling injustice of the slave trade.
They felt a hunger for justice - a sense of being spiritually impoverished -
"undernourished" because of slavery.
This is what made the difference. When we look at the familiar images of
other people's suffering, do we feel a void inside ourselves, a yearning for
something different and a conviction that it needn't be like this?
That's where change begins. And it's one of the differences that faith can
make; faith in God and in people.
It's worth remembering this year those who struggled to do away with the
slave trade. If we lived in a society that tolerated slavery now, wouldn't
we feel soiled and diminished by it? Wouldn't we feel hungry for something
different?
So what are the things today that make us feel the same?
People often speak about the spiritual hunger of our society. But the answer
to that isn't in ideas or spiritual feelings; it's in the decision to act -
to reach out to feed, to heal, to befriend, knowing that this is where we
discover who we're really meant to be.
We get the power for that when we believe that there is a divine love that
is waiting eagerly for us to cooperate.
And when we do, both physical and spiritual hunger can be met. We find our
nourishment as human beings together, as we really learn to share the world
we've been given to live in.
God bless you all in this New Year and help you find the nourishment you
need for spirit and body.
Ends
© Rowan Williams 2007
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posted by The Rt. Rev. Gregory H. Ray, D.D. @ 1/01/2007 02:38:00 PM
