ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
Exploring how our faith in God can change the world Christians are not alone in wanting a better world. In this respect, we stand alongside countless people of other faiths in wanting to see justice, freedom and well-being for all. However, despite the strong presence of faith in the world, governments and organisations – especially in the west – have tended to ignore the positive role that faith can play in global development. Happily, this is now changing. Increasingly, discussions around development are including the faith element. For example, United Nations (UN) Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark has commented: ‘Faith-based organisations... have an important role to play in reminding us to focus on what really matters to us as human beings in search of well-being.’ And José Riera-Cézanne, of the
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UN High Commissioner for Refugees, remarked that ‘faith leaders, religious institutions, communities of faith and faith-based NGOs are carrying out critical development and humanitarian relief activities’. It is gratifying to know that faith-based organisations – such as USPG – are being more widely recognised for the important work we are doing alongside our world church partners. This study course attempts to make links between our faith and global development. We want to suggest that it is only in God that there is any real hope for lasting change. Many of us hope for a better world, but we all know that change is not easy. It seems that good intentions and will power alone are not enough. This is where God comes in. The Franciscan Richard Rohr puts it like this: ‘[We] quite simply don’t have the power to obey the law or follow any ideal – such as loving others, forgiving enemies, nonviolence, or humble use of power – except in and through union with God.’ In other words, if we really want