Dear Friends,

This year the Christian festival of Pentecost coincides with the beginning of Christian Aid Week.  The work of God in Pentecost and the work of the church through Christian Aid reflect the same truth – that faith can never remain a private affair.

The work of God on that first Pentecost propelled a band of frightened and confused followers out on to the streets to go public about their belief in Jesus.  This fuelled a movement that demonstrated their faith to the world - a movement that has never diminished and continues to grow to this day.  When the Holy Spirit came, fear and confusion were replaced by faith, trust, understanding, hope and courage – the disciples came out of hiding, and the Christian church came to birth.  Christians have had to meet and work in secret in more repressive periods and places of persecution, but this has never extinguished the light of Christ - for the Holy Spirit continues to stir and sustain real faith in the face of rejection, apathy and threat.  In the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian church seeks to build and strengthen life-giving relationships between peoples and nations, and between all people and God, in Jesus Christ.

The work of the church through Christian Aid is one of the ways that we demonstrate our faith to the world.  Propelled and fuelled by the same Holy Spirit, we do this by showing care and generosity to people who are trapped by poverty and injustice.  Through the Christian Aid movement, the church seeks to build and strengthen life-giving relationships between the rich and poor.  Those who suffer because of the gross inequality of our world are given the resources to turn their own lives around, and move from despondency and dependency, to dignity and freedom. 

Through the generosity of all who contribute to Christian Aid, vital resources are poured in to places where there is little hope of a healthy diet, clean water, education, sound housing, medicine and the relief of suffering – things that we in the wealthiest nations regard to be a ‘right’ and take for granted. 

Whoever we are, and whatever our creed, race or colour, God continues to stir us – to overcome our greed and desire for all those meaningless material things, that we might become people of faith, hope and generosity – that our faith in God may be demonstrated to the world.  Without this outpouring of life-giving faith, our beliefs remain inert, meaningless and inauthentic.

Real faith is seen in loving and compassionate action.  May God bless us with generosity, that together we may transform the face of the earth.

God Bless, Maureen