The Rector Writes – February 2009
Dear Friends,
When I was a child I rarely received letters in the post. Whenever I did it was nearly always from relatives. Sometimes, however, I was sent a letter from someone I did not know, which was almost invariably a chain-letter.
There were two types of chain letter, as far as I remember. One asked you to copy the letter, by hand – this was before the days of photocopiers! – and then send it to four others, whilst writing a letter to introduce yourself to the four people whose names and addresses were attached. If all worked well you could expect to receive several more letters within a few weeks and possibly start some pen-friendships.
Some of the letters included warnings about dreadful things which had happened to people who had ignored the letter and broken the chain, and also stories of unexpected wealth which had come the way of those who had done what they were asked. My young suspicions were aroused. I didn’t like composing letters much anyway. Writing ‘thank-yous’ was the down-side of receiving presents at Christmas and on birthdays. ‘But how’, I asked, ‘did these tales of prosperity or woe get inserted into the letter once it had been sent off initially? Surely, they were put in beforehand?’ I smelt a rat and put my chain letters in the bin!
The other type asked for the recipient to copy the letter and send it to four others, as before, and also for the four people listed on the letter to be sent a certain sum of money. The prospect was not to make friends this time, but rather to receive more money than had been paid in, within a week or two. There would be a handsome return for as long as an ever-increasing number of people were involved. But what if that included everyone, so there were no more people to receive the letter for the first time? I was equally suspicious. What if I did what was asked but others didn’t? I would lose my pocket money and others would gain at my expense. This type went in the bin as well.
I would suggest that the current economic system is very similar to that second type of chain letter. We can afford to live as we do only for as long as there is growth – only whilst a larger and larger quantity of resources is being drawn on with ever-increasing markets, goods being produced and sold.
Charles Dickens’ character, Mr Micawber once famously said, “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
In the light of the present economic situation we could modify that to say, ‘Growth rate 2% – prosperity and happiness. Decline or even nil growth – poverty and misery.’
An economy which depends on growth could be sustained whilst there were unexplored continents to take minerals from whilst selling goods to their populations, but these conditions no longer apply. The earth is likely to run short of some essential resources in the next generation and the environment is no longer able to absorb pressures on it as once it did.
I recently attended a day-conference sponsored by the Church in Wales and the Open University about the need for mankind to reduce its demands on the planet, its seas and atmosphere. The message was that we can no longer afford to have an increasing population which uses more and more per person. This is not a new message – I recall encountering something similar in the 1970s.
President Obama made reference in his inaugural speech to ‘the American Dream’, which is usually taken to mean everyone being able to make it to the top if they have the determination. I suspect that this will have to take a different form over the next few years, at least in material terms.
In his letter to the Philippians chapter 4 verse 11 St Paul writes that he had ‘learnt to be content in all circumstances’. One key to addressing the crisis facing us and our environment may be to realise the value of what we already have and enjoy. We, in the developed world, have so much more than the average person on this planet.
There is one sense in which we should expect ever-increasing growth, however, and that is in the good news of peace with God through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church in Europe has generally lost its sense of the value of its Christian heritage and particularly of the privilege of a relationship with no less than our heavenly Father. Seeing an increase in the Kingdom of God, for which Christians should pray daily, strengthens our faith in the limitless love of God, with no adverse consequences as more and more people are drawn into it.
Yours sincerely
Martin Snellgrove