Plenary,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 8, 2002

Official Report 403KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business today is time for reflection, which will be led by Eildon Dyer, the press adviser for Christian Aid Scotland.

Good afternoon. What's in a name? If you have a name like mine—Eildon—you will know how important names are. I have had to go through life explaining that I am not Welsh, nor am I a man, and that I am in fact named after hills in the Borders. It could have been worse—I could have been called Buachaille Etive Mhor.

Not only that, I work for an organisation whose name I do not like—Christian Aid. Please do not misunderstand me. I am happy being a Christian and working for a Christian organisation. I am just about happy with the idea of aid. I would, however, prefer to work for an organisation called Christian Justice, which in fact is really what Christian Aid is all about.

Why justice? Because justice is one of the biblical imperatives to bring about the kind of world which God intended and which Jesus proclaimed. It was said of Jesus:

"Here is my servant … he will bring justice to the nations ... he will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice on the earth".

Next week, around 10,000 people will take to the streets of Scotland to collect money for Christian Aid. The money will go in aid to some of the world's poorest people. Increasingly, many of those 10,000 people are realising that money is not enough. Essential though money is, what the poorest in the world need is justice. Many of those 10,000 people are realising that the structures that keep people poor, like unpayable debt or unfair trade, need to be changed.

One of the dictionary definitions of justice is

‘the awarding of what is due'.

The focus of this year's Christian Aid week is world trade systems—systems that by and large do not give the poorest what they are due. Listen out, because the trade justice movement is gearing up. Some of those 10,000 people may have something to say to you over the coming months and years.

Acting for justice demands that we be sacrificial. I will finish with a prayer on that theme.

Show us, good Lord
how to be frugal, till all are fed;
how to weep, till all can laugh;
how to be meek, till all can stand in pride;
how to mourn, till all are comforted;
how to be restless, till all live in peace;
how to claim less, till all find justice.

Amen.