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"The king made a covenant in the presence of Yahweh,
promising to follow him,
to keep his commandments and laws,
and to respect his ordinances.
He promised to keep this covenant
according to what was written in the book
with all his heart and with all his soul.
And all people promised with him."
(2Kings. 23,3)
Few other words can be so highly illustrative of the Lenten period and of what God demands, to reform our way of living. Yet man worships wealth on the altar of power. The kings of Israel were such people. Then, the accidental discovery of the "Law" in 622 B.C. shakes the kingdom and prompts king Josiah into a new religious and social reform. He focuses on reshaping his life and that of his people by a rebalancing of wealth distribution. Following the Tsunami disaster, we saw a similar reshaping of life values. People gathered in grief and reacted as for the 9/11 tragedy.
Apart from the money raised, the hope lies in the great wealth of humanity still there. It is called people power, "when two or three gather in my name" said Jesus, when people assemble to fight for a common cause. In an ecumenical service held at St. Barnabas Parish, Shettleston, the Rev. Stephen J. Chester, Church of Scotland, questioned on what grounds we Christian ought to unite today? "Going to a Tesco Supermarket are we aware of the history of the products that we put in our trolleys? Do we know the power we have as consumers to better the conditions of the workers by choosing merchandise fairly traded?".
Fr. Tesfamichael once told me that each year an Ash Wednesday Liturgy takes place in London, at the Embankment Gardens and the Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, which has as its focus an invitation to repent and resist. The place is marked with ashes and charcoal and the people present commit them-selves to act in a spirit of love and non-violence. The last time the UK hosted the G8 in Birmingham in 1998 70,000 people formed a human chain around the city centre forcing poverty onto the G8 agenda and bringing significant debt relief for poor countries.
The year 2005 is seeing the U.K. Presidency of the European Parliament and of the G8 meeting in Gleneagles (Perthshire) with the declared aim to stop poverty in Africa. Local administrations and M.P.s may get more involved in this matter by organising public meetings to question how this can be achieved. The S.M.P. member for Stirling, Anne McGuire and her colleague, Ann McKechin held a Commission for Africa Seminar and I was invited to attend. There were well-over one hundred participants discussing about: democracy and political opposition; Aids and malaria; share holders in pharmaceutics companies, Countries to develop drugs and train local doctors; debt relief, monitoring of aid money, access, transparency, accountability and no corruption; free education, empowerment of women and culture inclusion; small agribusiness and fair trade. The U.N. has launched this 2005 as the International Year of the Microcredit. Ethical banks are working to ensure that 100 million of the World poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credits for self-employment.