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“It is a great honour and joy to be with you today on this very special celebration of the 80th anniversary of Christian Aid,” said Pillay. “I bring you the greetings and blessings of the World Council of Churches and the entire fellowship joins me in expressing our congratulations on this special anniversary.”
Pillay noted that we are living in a world of suffering, pain, and struggle. “It is just the way it is,” he said. “Thousands of people are dying, and nobody seems to be able to intervene to stop these senseless killings.”
Political leaders, no matter how super powerful they claim to be, cannot seem to stop these destructions, dangers, and deaths, said Pillay. “And all the while, people are suffering and dying,” he said, asking “How can we remain silent?”
What the world needs today is God`s life-line, Pillay reflected.
“And, if the truth be told, this lifeline often does not come from sources we would expect it to come from,” he said. “Not usually from the rich and powerful, not from the politically empowered, not from the legalistically religious, not from the so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good, not from the priest interested only in ceremonial rituals and activities, not from those who have the potential to do some good,” he said. “Thank God for the good neighbours and lifelines.”
They are the ones prepared to disrupt their comfort, Pillay said. “They love enough to make a difference,” he said. “We need to learn to stop and see what is happening around us.”
Pillay noted that we need to have empathy, and we need to be good neighbours. “Today we thank God for Christian Aid and for its work over the past 80 years bringing hope, affirming and sustaining life of the injured and dying in our world,” he said. “Amidst all the challenges you have faced over these years you have never ceased to stop to show concern, to cross boundaries in who you help and to show compassion.”
Christian Aid, Pillay said, has helped restore and heal the broken and suffering people of the word.
“You know the power of unstoppable hope,” he said. “Yes, we are living in a world in which hope is receding all the time.”
People are giving up, Pillay acknowledged.
“They think things will never change, never get better,” he said. “We are overcome by a spirit of darkness, fear, despondency.”
However, as Christians, we cannot succumb to this hopelessness, he urged.
“The basis of our hope is our faith in God,” he said. “Like faith and love, hope is an eschatological gift.”
The scriptures make clear that we should put our hope in God, Pillay continued. “Hope in God, though, is not passive resignation but working with God as agents of transformation and change,” he said. “It is this kind of hope that we have and share as people of faith.”
It is this inspirational hope that drives the work and witness of Christian Aid, Pillay concluded. "So, despite the context let us dare to hope, let us live in hope, let us be instruments and agents of hope,” he said. “Let us rest in the unstoppable power of hope.”
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Westminster Abbey.
Ana Julia Ingrassia
