Slavery

Today, July 30th, the Church remembers William Wilberforce (died 1833); he was the great social reformer who worked tirelessly for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. He led a group of campaigners who worked selflessly for many years to bring this evil trade to an end: often at great personal cost.
They had to fight powerful vested interests - like so many things that are wrong - the lure of wealth blinded many to the evil, and as St paul reminds us: "the love of money is the root of all evil".
And, sadly, today the slave trade is still alive and well in all sorts of places around the world - even in Australia. There are "sex slaves" in the sex industry. Young women lured by deceit, sold by impoverished families or kidnapped, are brought to Australia to work in the sex industry and they may eventually work their way out of it - usually with nothing more than the clothes that they stand in.
In many third world countries children are forced into work - just to survive - receiving nothing more than scraps of food for long days of hard physical labour.
In areas of civil war, prisoners are sold into slavery.
This evil is a blight on humanity - we must as we best can support all efforts to abolish slavery - it can be as simple as buying "free trade" products - e.g. coffee and chocolate, supporting organisations like Anglicord and World Vision, who work to eridicate slavery in third world countries through their community support programmes etc.
Do not bury your head in the sand - look to what you can do - a little "googling" will open up all sorts of possibilities.

W.F.D.

Well, World Youth day is here, and what a celebration it is for our friends in the R.C. Church.
It gets the Church in the news in a positive light - that's a change!
It provides all Christian communities with opportunities to share their faith.

It is encouraging to see so many young people passionate about their faith.

As we wrestle with the issues of Climate Change, rising oil prices, housing affordibility, food shortages and so on - as a community the Church has some very positive things to say.

Jesus challenges us all to be truly loving - i.e. to be compassionate, selfless, generous, just and peace makers.
These things are not easy to live, but as the Christian community we can, and with the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling we can, together fulfill God's will, and purpose.

So let us take the opportunities W.Y.D. brings.