I first attended the Methodist Assiation of Youth Clubs annual MAYC London Weekend in May 1979 and it was an experience that changed my life forever. Even forty years on the memory is still very real to me and I find myself remembering detailed moments of that event, when I find, that I sometimes struggle to remember events that happened just a few months ago. The MAYC Weekends always had a theme, and I remember the theme of that first weekend for me being “People Matter” and those two words have echoed around in my head during the last few days People Matter! We have witnessed with horror the scenes in Ukriane since the Russan Army began its military invasion just a few days ago and it perhaps far too easy for us to remain detached from what is happening there.
Pastor Martin Niemoller spoke about 1930’s Germany, I have copied the words from the internet, so they might not be a hundred percent accurate, but they give the gerneral gist of what he said.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
As March 2020 began, Covid 19 was something that had happened elsewhere and suddenly it was coming for us, back in the days when it was happening in Wuhan, it was of very little interest, but two years on a hundred and sixty-two thousand people have died in the UK and over nineteen million people, a third of the population, have been infected! Suddenly, it started to matter in a big way.
We might look at the pictures in our press, on the internet and television and remain detached, but these are real people, who just a few weeks ago were going about their everyday lives, mothers giving birth, children attending schools, adults working, they were people who would have been concerned about the ordinary things, like what to eat for dinner, which bills needed paying and where they might go for holiday this year. Now, they have left their homes behind, kissed goodbye to the people they love and either started fighting for their country, or trying to escape to neighbouring countries, taking with them only what they can carry and having no idea what the future might hold for them.
This is a dire and frightening situation not simply for the Ukrainian people, but for the world at large and it has really made me think over the last few days. I know of so many people who have found the last two years an incredible challenge, and just as that MAYC London Weekend back in 1979 had a positive impact on my life, the pandemic has changed some peoples lives for ever in a negative way. The stress of being forced to make decisions, we were never equipped to make and subsequently being criticised is not easy, people throughout the world have become very vulnerable and maybe in the light of that experience, we simply cannot stand by an be spectators to what is happening in Ukraine, these are real people, and, quoting the theme of MAYC 1979 People Matter!
People will have already given support but there are two links to share:
The Disasters Emergency Appeal where the government is match funding to £20m
And the Methodist Church Fund All We Can:
Prayer for peace in Ukraine
Holy and Gracious God
We pray for the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia; for their countries and their leaders.
We pray for all those who are afraid; that your everlasting arms hold them in this time of great fear.
We pray for all those who have the power over life and death; that they will choose for all people life, and life in all its fullness.
We pray for those who choose war; that they will remember that you direct your people to turn our swords into ploughshares and seek for peace.
We pray for leaders on the world stage; that they are inspired by the wisdom and courage of Christ.
Above all, Lord, today we pray for peace for Ukraine.
And we ask this in the name of your blessed Son.
Lord have mercy.
Amen