Otium Sanctum

In his BBC New Year Message the Archbishop of Canterbury sets out that in this global society we now inhabit “risk and suffering are everybody’s problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family.”

As we enter a new decade, the Archbishop reflects on The Millennium Development Goals, eight key objectives about tackling poverty and disease, agreed by over 200 nations and international bodies, which “summed up for a lot of us the hopes we had for a new look at our world.”

Dr Williams recognises that it has been a “terrible and gruelling ten years in all kinds of ways, with terrorism and war and natural disaster and the financial collapse of the last fifteen months. But the Archbishop says “before we shrug our shoulders and lower our expectations, let’s not lose sight of one enormous lesson we can learn from the last decade.

“The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local. Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don’t stop at national frontiers. It’s one thing that terrorism and environmental challenge and epidemic disease have taught us.”

He asks us to recognise how our actions can make a difference:

“We’re still falling short in the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals, but that doesn’t mean we can forget them or water them down. We’ve seen some signs of change; we can make more, by supporting efforts to help children out of poverty across the world – and locally as well – by campaigns to protect our environment, by keeping up pressure on our governments.”

“We share the risks. The big question is, can we share the hopes and create the possibilities? Because it’s when we do share the hopes that we really see what it is to belong together as human beings, discovering our own humanity as we honour the human dignity of others.”

The Archbishop urges us try to respond to problems that are geographically remote as we would to those of our immediate family:

“Above all, it’s about not losing our hope for change and our love and respect for the dignity of everyone. In a world where risk and suffering are everybody’s problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family. Let’s respond just as we do when our immediate family is in need or trouble. We may be amazed by the difference we can make.”

The full transcript of the video is below:

Remember New Year’s Eve ten years ago? All our family piled out of doors to watch the fireworks all around the horizon.

And the start of the new millennium was a moment for fireworks, a moment of real excitement. At one level it may just have been a flipping over of the calendar, just a date in the book. But for so many people it represented something we all dream about – a change in the sort of world we live in, a change that could bring us that bit closer to a world where cruelty, suffering and unfairness get dealt with properly.

That’s why the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ summed up for a lot of us the hopes we had for a new look at our world – goals agreed by over 200 nations and international bodies with eight key objectives about tackling poverty and disease and building a fairer and safer world.

Yes, we could say, it is possible to think of a world where child poverty has been abolished; yes, it is possible to get rid of diseases like malaria and to guarantee proper access to medication for everyone who lives with HIV; yes, we can do something about education for the poorest. We can after all believe that there is hope for those in our world who have least power and influence and security.

And it’s true that it has been a terrible and gruelling ten years in all kinds of ways, with terrorism and war and natural disaster and the financial collapse of the last fifteen months. Plenty there to distract us, you might well think.

But before we do shrug our shoulders and lower our expectations, let’s not lose sight of one enormous lesson we can learn from the last decade. The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local. Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don’t stop at national frontiers. It’s one thing that terrorism and environmental challenge and epidemic disease have taught us.

We share the risks. The big question is, can we share the hopes and create the possibilities? Because it’s when we do share the hopes that we really see what it is to belong together as human beings, discovering our own humanity as we honour the human dignity of others.

If we look back, quite a bit has been achieved. There is hope but so much remains to be done: each year, nine million children still die before reaching their fifth birthday – from avoidable disease, from violence and undernourishment.

Ten years ago, we had a chance to remember what we wanted for ourselves and others in our world; a chance to remind ourselves what it means to see men and women as made in the image of God, a God who loves each of us beyond imagining and who stepped into our world 2,000 years ago to transform it.

We’re still falling short in the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals, but that doesn’t mean we can forget them or water them down. We’ve seen some signs of change; we can make more, by supporting efforts to help children out of poverty across the world – and locally as well – by campaigns to protect our environment, by keeping up pressure on our governments.

Above all, it’s about not losing our hope for change and our love and respect for the dignity of everyone. In a world where risk and suffering are everybody’s problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family. Let’s respond just as we do when our immediate family is in need or trouble. We may be amazed by the difference we can make.

God help you make a difference; and God bless you all and those you love in this coming year.

The Archbishop of Canterbury: Dr. Rowan Williams