Chairman's Letter
Dear Friends,
The news that comes to us from the Congo is partial and so often disjointed. It is hard for anyone to get a full picture. The news that comes to us from the Congo is contradictory. Signs of hope and survival are followed by bewildering stories of brutality and cruelty. The news that comes to us from the Congo is often opaque. Motives, the motives of governments and movements, the motives of clan and ethnic group, are a mystery in this great wounded land and her poor suffering people.
And yet, and yet. In amidst it all we acknowledge the goodness and the greatness of God. God, loving and calling. God, sustaining and renewing. God, converting and energizing. Amid all the suffering, all the struggle for survival, there is the indomitable spirit of people who hope against hope for the day when they can have the peace and stability that so many others enjoy. And we know that for so many, both of our communion and other churches, that hope is intimately linked with their faith, that, as Peter said, their God will never fail them nor forsake them.
That kind of courage and faith rebukes us. It is itself a call to pray. A call to renew our faith and confidence in the God who is the God of DR Congo, and who can bring life out of death, and meaning and order out of chaos. we add our voice to that of the Psalmist - How long, O Lord, how long? It may be that complaint and lament for all that our brothers and sisters have suffered ought to be part of the tone of our prayers (something I think we very rarely do, and secretly think that good Christians shouldn't. St Paul would not have agreed, I suspect). But, in any event, we know that soon there will be a new and better day for DR Congo and all her people. In the meantime we pray. Pray with thanksgiving, and with passion. Please take all that you read in here as a stimulus to just that.
Your fellow-prayer for the DR Congo and the PEAC,
Jeremy Pemberton