Bishop Writes to Parishes

My dear sisters and brothers,

We’re half-way through Lent, half-way to Easter.

In our Christian churches, Easter is the biggest feast in the year – full of joy and hope.

Even for people who are not Christian, Easter is the joyful Spring holiday.

But there are many people, in fact whole countries, where Easter will be just another day of poverty, illness and despair, unless something changes.

Half-way through Lent we should be praying or fasting or giving alms. We prepare for the joy of Easter by more contact with God, or by less indulgence in our own satisfaction, or by sharing our good fortune with others less fortunate.

Today I ask you to think of those others. One by one, we can’t change the whole world, but each of us can make a small change. And together we can make a big change.

Talking about small change, I hope you have collected your WEE BOX. Our Scottish charity, SCIAF, asked people what they remembered about SCIAF’s Lent Appeal each year – and the answer came back “That’s when we get our wee box.” So this year, I hope each family, each household, has got its Wee Box.

Small change in the Wee Box may not seem much. But small change in thousands of wee boxes adds up to huge changes for the poor of the developing world.

Think of the many children orphaned by HIV/Aids in Africa, where most of the world’s 40 million HIV positive people live. One little boy’s granny takes him to a SCIAF supported centre in Uganda, where he is enrolled in school and given a meal every day. He begins to dream of a different future. His prospects have changed.

Think of a mother living in a slum in Zambia. She fetches water from a tap in the street. Some days she can’t afford to eat. Now she hears that her country’s debt has been cancelled because people like you campaigned for an end to it. She is so grateful for the concern of people she has never met, such as yourselves. Her community is changed.

Think of Kim, the woman whose picture is on your SCIAF Lent box. She lives in Cambodia, where millions of people don’t know where their next meal will come from. A local organisation, funded by SCIAF, teaches her to grow food and care for the local environment. Her life is changed, indeed transformed.

40 years ago, Pope Paul VI wrote a letter on the development of peoples. He called on us to think about the way we live and the steps we are willing to take to help those who are poor and hungry.

Last year, on SCIAF’s 40th anniversary, the Scottish bishops said: “We need new thinking about how we act, the lifestyle choices we make, the goods we buy and the financial and political options we choose.”

All the small steps we take – when we put money in our SCIAF Lent box, when we spend a little more time in prayer, when we take the time to let our politicians know we care about world poverty – can bring about big change in the world.

I want to thank you for all the changes you have made, by giving to SCIAF, the church’s aid agency. Thank you for your generosity in this holy season of Lent, and throughout the year. Your support enables SCIAF to reach out to some of the poorest people in the world, and to speak out for a change in their conditions and an end to their poverty.

The man who landed on the moon said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” One wee box for SCIAF can mean a quantum leap, a huge change for people whom God loves. Thank you for showing His love to them. Thank you for changing their misery and offering them some Easter joy.

With my gratitude and my blessing

+ Peter A Moran

Bishop-President, SCIAF

March 2007