VP - A quiet week?

If there's no District visit or exciting event on the official calendar, some people assume that Mark and I have 'quiet' weeks. Actually, mine started on Sunday with a difficult, snowy journey to a village preaching appointment about 8 miles away in Cropredy. A hardy bunch of a dozen and a half braved the dangerous roads and lethal pavements - and the tea/coffee afterwards was as warm as the welcome. On Monday the Methodist Council roadshow hit London until lunch time on Tuesday - lots of important governance, finance and management business, but also discussion about future mission, inter-faith work and the possible future shape of circuits. And as with every other Council meeting for the last couple of years, Fruitful Field was a key item on the agenda. We met in the old Committee Room of MMS and Council chaplain, Nigel Hardwick, brought a Cross from Malton, Yorks, to centre us. It used to belong to the Revd Douglas and Margaret Prescott (ex Missionaries in Dahomey/now Benin). They would be thrilled to know that the first outing of 'their' Cross at Council was in that room! I first got to know them many years ago at World Village - and perhaps other readers of this blog remember happy summer days with challenging speakers and a world to love. So to Wednesday evening's spectacular launch of the 'IF' campaign at Somerset House.

Isabel and I were suitably dressed by MRDF in IF shirts (large enough thankfully to go over our coats). The IF campaign is a natural successor to the Jubilee campaign. IF nations use land more wisely and grow more food; IF aid commitments of nations are kept; IF governments work together to stop big companies evading their tax responsibilities in poor countries; IF international trade was more transparent - then there would be no need for 1 in 8 people in the world today to go hungry, when globally we grow more than enough food. The campaign, run jointly by the major aid agencies and faith bodies, including Christian Aid, MRDF and the Methodist Church, is targeting 2013 because this is the year that the UK has the Presidency of the G8 - and therefore David Cameron has a key role in leading other influential nations. I hope all Methodists can get behind IF and together help change the world. So, a quiet week? - hardly; a cold week? - certainly; but with much to warm the heart.