Christians Aware: "All our efforts are part of God's Mission"

Barbara Butler and Bishop John

Anglican bishop John Perumbalath, chair of Christians Aware and the new Bishop of Liverpool, told its annual January conference in Derbyshire last weekend that "our challenge is to be aware that all our efforts are part of God's mission" and "we are challenged to do what we can and to bring life in all its fullness to our world and all its people."

More than 60 participants listened to speakers and attended workshops on the theme of 'On Eagle's Wings: Health and Healing Worldwide'. Most were from around England, with some from Iraq, Pakistan, India, Zambia and Afghanistan.

They heard Elizabeth Perry of the Anglican Alliance speak about Church support for communities during the Covid-19 pandemic and post-Covid work around its publication 'Re-Imagining our world together'. This offers bible studies on Anglican mission and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is: 'Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages.' She felt, "we strive to be midwives of hope." There was endorsement of UN agencies and conferences reaching out to engage with people of faith, for example the group 'Faiths at Cop15', which participated in the December UN Biodiversity conference in Canada.

The former BBC staff correspondent Mike Wooldridge, with extensive experience throughout Africa, and Ruth Wooldridge, a specialist in palliative care in Africa, both felt there was "much to be done" to address inequality in Africa to improve health care in the continent. They highlighted the important work of mission hospitals, which provide around one-third of health care, and of Community Health Workers who are, "really making a significant difference to health care at the grassroots level in Africa". Mike commented: "For the foreseeable future, the scaling up of innovative approaches to health, like the growth in the number of trained community health workers, seems to be badly needed alongside the more traditional responses of more clinics and hospitals and doctors and nurses and radiographers and physiotherapists and so on. The whole of it, most importantly, affordable for everyone." He recalled reporting on the 1984 Ethiopia famine, and noting that food shortages, conflict and proneness to drought remain key issues that affect health in Africa.

Saturday afternoon seminars included Jenny Brown, Senior Advocacy Officer at Christian Aid, looking at 'Health and well-being in a time of crisis' and Ellen Teague looking at 'Columban work for healing around the world'. Ahmed Masood Amer explored, 'Is a healthy Afghanistan possible?' Conference music was led by Richard Hubbard.

On the Sunday morning, Peter Rookes, a nurse who is Secretary to the Birmingham Council of Faiths and who has worked internationally and leads regular faith and well-being seminars, highlighted that the key motive for working as a health carer is love of God and love of neighbour.

For more than three decades the Leicester-based ecumenical educational and religious charity, headed by Barbara Butler, has stimulated work between Christians, other faiths and the secular world specifically on the promotion of Justice, Peace and Ecology. It does this with a programme of special interest groups, conferences, work-camps, summer schools, books, a magazine and international exchanges. The Christians Aware youtube channel offers the recorded talks of speakers at its events, including Dr Rowan Williams, Ann Pettifor and Professor Anthony Reddie.

The 2024 January Christians Aware Conference will be held at Hinsley Hall in Leeds.

Link: www.christiansaware.co.uk/