The Year of Salt & Light – where next?
Social Responsibility Officer Justin Arnott charts the path through Lent to Easter and beyond
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! As we move through the season of Lent, through the cross and empty tomb, into Eastertide and as the days lengthen, we might be forgiven for feeling that things are getting easier and better.
While this can be the case, the harsh reality is that social issues rarely do so with the passing of time or the change of a season. Indeed, it is when we least expect it that things often get worse in the world.
Hindsight is always 20/20 while it is difficult to make predictions about the future. We can also get trapped into always reacting to the latest crisis, while the not-so-latest fades from the headlines.
It is into this that the Year of Salt and Light continues to highlight different areas of Social Responsibility to provoke thought, prayer and action. After touching on refugees, we are spending Lent looking at divisions, conflict and power in a different light.
Then we move on to the areas of Racial Justice and Poverty. The intention is not for them to be one-offs; the material can be found, and will remain, on the diocesan website along with a new email stdavids.yearof@cinw.org.uk for you to send communication, comments and feedback to.
Again, the intention is not to overwhelm or blame, but rather to support and encourage what is already being done while offering areas for further work.
As vast and diverse as the field of Social Responsibility is, so too are those called to work in the different areas and therefore we should not fall into the trap of trying to do it all, or moving from one area to another.
Rather, as Christians, we acknowledge God’s involvement in our creation and the forming of our character and thus can rely on Him to guide us to where we can be most effective. Often this is through our interests or where we already are!
May your Eastertide be filled with opportunities to demonstrate to those around us the reason for the hope we have - not in a philosophy, teaching or religion, but in the person of Jesus Christ, who came to radically transform not just lives but also society.
His saving love, demonstrated on the cross and confirmed in the empty tomb, is what empowered his disciples and flowers throughout the ages to work for a better life for those around them. In this world and the next.