Church letter

February 2023

Click for the church letter from January 2023

Look out for and take care of one another

All are made in the image of God It has been an interesting start to the New Year. “The Church Commissioners are to create an ‘impact investment fund’ worth £100m to mitigate long-term consequences of their fund’s connection with the transatlantic slave trade. Profits from the new fund will be used primarily overseas to provide grants to “address some of the past wrongs” of the Church of England’s links with the slave trade. The Archbishop of Canterbury said in a statement, ‘It is now time to take action to address our shameful past.’” (Church Times, 13/1/2023)

I have a lot of respect for our archbishop and would not want his job for all the tea in China, but I struggle with the idea of this fund. We absolutely have to recognise the past wrongs of the CoE; we have to strive for a church and society that works for justice for all people; that recognises everyone is a creation of, and equally loved and valued by, God. We should therefore treat everyone in the same way, irrespective of race, colour, gender, sexuality, religion. Our primary teaching is that we should love God and love one another, and “do to others as we would have them do to us”. We are far from that and have much to do.

However, to impose the standards of today back on to the actions and standards of our forebears, centuries ago, and then try to pay for those wrongful actions, just does not sit comfortably. Yes, we acknowledge the Church did wrong, but we need to learn from the wrongs and work to ensure similar injustices are not repeated. I remain open to learning more about the reasoning for this fund.

Your parish church may well have characters from its own history whose actions might not sit comfortably with us today. I wonder, though, what future generations will think of our actions when they look back at us 200 years hence, and impose their standards back on us? I suspect we won’t come out of it without fault. That doesn’t stop us trying to do the best we can now, by the standards we live by, and help our fellow brothers and sisters in this world who are worse off than we are.

We can help them now, through supporting food banks or through our own direct financial support. In the summer, we have our village fete in support of St George’s. This raises important funds for our parish church. We, in turn, use the money to aid the work of our church, and a significant number of charities benefited this last year, including the Children’s Society, St Luke’s Healthcare for the Clergy, Let The Children Live, Starfish Malawi, Catching Lives, Médecins Sans Frontières, Demelza Hospice for Children, Dolen Llanbrynmair, Tools with a Mission, The Salvation Army, Hospice in the Weald, Weald Family Hub, Sightsavers, Nourish, and Young Carers of Crossroads Care, Kent. In our immediate locality, the primary school, the pre-school, and Wellbeing in the Weald also benefited financially from the church fete.

As the parish church in Benenden we will continue to support individuals and charities where we see a real need now, today, using the best standard we can: all are made in the image of God; all are loved by God.

Revd David Commander, Rector