Minister's Update

Lion Walk
United Reformed Church

Dear Friends:

I have often written in our church magazine, and said in the pulpit, that Christianity is far from the easiest thing in the world, and that many of life’s crises and problems seem to have no simple Christian solution. Indeed, I have sometimes suggested that applying glib Christian platitudes to a difficult or sensitive situation can sometimes do more harm than good.

I’m thinking of this again as I listen every day to the news from Zimbabwe. Various politicians and commentators from home and abroad have been making a variety of suggestions of ways in which the international community might deal with the oppressive and corrupt regime of Robert Mugabe. Some have suggested that it must be left to neighbouring African nations to bring pressure to bear on the Zimbabwe government, others have been calling for a UN peacekeeping force, and some have even suggested a team of assassins.

How have Christians responded? You may recall the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, cutting up his clerical collar on BBC television as a symbol of the destruction of the Zimbabwean people’s identity by their own government. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also been outspoken in his criticism of the Mugabe regime. While acknowledging that Mugabe was ‘someone we were very proud of’, he now calls for action from Zimbabwe’s African neighbours.

But what action can there be? Strong sanctions, such as cutting electricity supplies, would only add to the Zimbabweans’ misery, while the current EU sanctions against the country’s ruling elite seem useless. There is no simple way forward, and as Christians there seems little we can do but remember the plight of our Zimbabwean friends, keep them in our prayers, and let them know that we are thinking of them.

I am in intermittent e-mail contact with the minister from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa who visited us last year. He and his family are struggling to cope with the hyper-inflation and with long periods without electricity. Always the optimist, he says that he is better off than many of his congregation, and that the crisis cannot last much longer. I have sent him a message of support; please remember him and all Zimbabweans in your prayers.

Ken

If you wish, please use these prayers:

Prayer for Zimbabwe

Land of plenty,

Place of want;

Land of prosperity,

Place of need;

Land of freedom,

Place of oppression;

Land of cheerfulness,

Place of misery;

Land of family,

Place of loneliness;

Land of sunshine,

Place of darkness;

Land of friendship,

Place of hate;

Land of hospitality,

Place of fear;

Land of peace,

Place of conflict.

God’s land,

Fallen place.

God bless Zimbabwe;

God save Zimbabwe.

Amen

Hear the Good News

‘Hear the good news of the Kingdom’, we say, but there are those who cannot hear because their world is filled with the sounds of suffering and for them there is only bad news.

‘Freedom from oppression,’ we say, but still there are millions living in the shadow of hunger and death while others lives of extravagance and wastefulness.

‘Release for the captive,’ we say, perhaps without really knowing what we mean by it; content to live with the knowledge that prisons throughout the world are filled beyond capacity.

And so we remember those to whom we are called to bring Good News: those for whom each day brings more bad news; those whose relationships bring not love but misery; those whose work is not an expression of their talent or skill but a battle to provide for themselves and their dependents.

May they hear news that is truly good.

We remember those who are deprived of the essentials of life; who live in poverty so desperate it is hard for us even to imagine; who live with pain and sickness because no medical help is available to them; who have to rely on their children to be providers.

May they hear news that is truly good.

We remember those who are trapped by poverty, unable to realise dreams and ambitions; and those who are trapped by wealth, unable to relax, fearful of future loss.

May they hear news that is truly good.

We have heard Good News; let us share it, and let us work to ensure that the news we bring is truly good.