By: Margaret Brown
DURING THE 40 days of Lent, the Luz Bay end of St.Vincent’s parish has been offering a York Course entitled, Can we build a better World?
Based on the premise that faith can move mountains and, being the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentary Act that abolished the Slave Trade, as an example, it uses how William Wilberforce and some Christian friends brought this about. It took 18 years of constant endeavour, during which their Bill was blocked time and again by parliamentarians with huge financial stakes in the selling of black labour and because resultant profits supported the British economy. However, in 1807, the Act received the royal assent.
Do we have the will and time in the 21st century to build a better world, or has the chase for profit so overcome moral considerations of how it is obtained that scruples count for little? How do we start? As Christians, we may know where our duties lie, but the mountain cannot be moved without the help of other faiths.
Way forward
Assuming that members of different cultures, races and religions also care about the dire state of a large part of the world’s population, perhaps we can find a way forward together.
Meanwhile, tentacles of hope reach out into the dark places where hunger, sickness and war prevail. Missionaries, charities and concerned private individuals continue to seek publicity for the plight of thousands and ‘go-it-alone’ where the danger and need is greatest, but not until every person has access to the necessities of life and a share in human dignity shall we build a better world.
Chauvinism, prejudice, selfishness and greed are the stones within this mountain, but there is always hope wherever the seeds of faith find fertile soil.
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