Press Releases21 Jun 25

‘Peace is the greatest achievement’ of Christian Aid’s partnership with communities – Bishop Trevor Williams

At the end of a week dominated by stories of conflict in several parts of our world, Bishop Trevor Williams highlighted peace as the greatest achievement of a successful and locally–led development project, in his remarks at Christian Aid’s 80th anniversary service.

Bishop Williams was speaking in Belfast Cathedral on Friday evening (20th June) – World Refugee Day – and his sermon is provided in full as follows.  He illustrated his remarks on Isaiah 58 and Matthew 22 with a recollection of a visit to a village in Mali, where a reservoir was built by local people with the help of Christian Aid – also a reconciled community for the people who call it home.

Sermon by Bishop Trevor Williams for 80th anniversary Service of Thanksgiving for Christian Aid Ireland, Belfast Cathedral, Friday (20th June 2025):

Readings: Isaiah 58.5–8 and Matthew 22.34–40

Thank you for this opportunity to support Christian Aid Ireland.  It is a privilege. We live in dark days, where there is more talk about war than there is about peace.  Where governments are turning ploughshares into swords and pruning hooks into spears as they move funding from international development to defence in an increasingly threatening global environment.

Our readings bring us back to what really matters, what the law and the prophets were trying to teach us, the eternal values that enable us to live well together.  Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbours as ourselves.  And, remember, Jesus showed us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that neighbourliness is caring for those in need. That focus is made explicit in the passage from Isaiah:

‘… to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

‘Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them?’

The context of those verses from Isaiah is that God’s people were seeking to please God by diligently keeping up their religious practice but were ignoring the suffering, injustice and poverty of those in need. To be in relationship with God means you not only say you care for those in need, you act on their behalf to relieve their suffering.

How many times have you said: “When I listen to the news, I feel so helpless, the suffering is so awful and there is nothing I can do about it?”

I have good news for you, this is precisely why Christian Aid exists.

Christian Aid works with some of the world’s most vulnerable communities in 29 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.  And through Christian Aid, your gift of loving support can reach those in need.

I have been impressed by how Christian Aid works.  Christian Aid doesn’t say: “I know what is best for you.”  It works through local partners who know how best to support the local community. They don’t arrive with prepared solutions but ask those directly affected what they need.

One of the greatest privileges I have had in my ministry has been to be a member of the Board of Christian Aid Ireland. 

I was invited to travel to Mali to meet Christian Aid partners and the people they were working with.  But first there was a meeting with local community activists and Islamic and Christian religious leaders, and professors from one of the oldest universities in the world from Timbuktu. We brainstormed together about what we could do to promote peace in the context of the war.

Then we visited some remote villages on the Dogon Plateau.  I remember stepping out of our air–conditioned jeep into 50 degrees of unforgiving sunshine.

In that arid condition where rainfall was becoming increasingly unpredictable and winds were stripping away fertile soil, remarkable progress had been made.  A large reservoir had been built by local people which could irrigate the market garden to provide food for the village, together with new techniques to counter soil erosion, new drought–resistant seeds and solar energy to make it all work.

After seeing what had been achieved there was a village meeting.  I asked the elders of the village: “Of all the progress you have made,  what was your best achievement?”

The answer was one word. “Peace”.

“Before Christian Aid’s partners came, there was a dispute about village leadership. It was serious.  We kept in our houses and didn’t go out.  We weren’t sleeping, we weren’t working.  Government agencies came with plans to help our agriculture, but nothing happened.  When Christian Aid came, they asked us what we needed, and we began working on the problems of leadership in the village.  In time we came to an agreement and peace was restored.  This is why we have been able to make such progress. Peace is the greatest achievement because it enables us to live together and to work together.”

That’s what the village elders told me, with great smiles on their faces.

It was Christian Aid’s Church–based partner in Mali that recognised the importance of right relationships if any development was to be possible in that village.

Thank God for Christian Aid.  For its 80 years of seeking to be an agency of God’s loving concern for the world.  For its way of working respecting the dignity, intelligence and integrity of those they work with, and for its commitment to the Churches, to enable us to play our part in being agents of God’s loving concern for all of God’s creation.

Amen.

A full gallery of photos is available in the Church of Ireland’s online gallery on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCiJqU 

With thanks to Frank Dillon Photography