back back to March 2009

Report from the 'Put People First' service and rally

30/03/2009 11:50:00


On Saturday I attended the 'Put People First' service at Westminster Central Hall, followed by the march to Hyde Park with 35000 others. The aim of the event was to ask the G20 leaders to act on 'jobs, justice and climate', although the focus at the church service was really on the last two of these.

The service at Westminster Central Hall was reasonably well attended, but the exhortation "Please come in good time to be sure of a seat" turned out to be unnecessary (below).

There were a variety of speakers at the service, including Paul Cook from Tear Fund, Christine Allen from Progressio, Fr Joe Komakoma, a CAFOD partner, Rt Revd Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, and Revd Joel Edwards from Micah Challenge (below).

© not advert
The 'Put People First' service at Westminster Central Hall. Photo: Dave Walker

This video (the first I have ever uploaded to Youtube - please forgive the slight lack of audio clarity) is of the final prayer of commitment, led by Dr Daleep Mukarji, Director of Christian Aid. The text is below.


Father, we stand before you in prayer as the global economy crisis casts a shadow over the peoples of the earth. In a word as closely connected as ours, each of our actions affects the whole. We are sorry when we have failed to act beyond our narrow interests. Help us to live as a community and care for others, especially the vulnerable and the poor amongst us.

As the G20 meet, we ask for wisdom for the leaders of the world. Where nations have pushed their agendas on others, bring partnership and love. Where people have lived lives disconnected from their brothers and sisters in other countries; bring solidarity and compassion. May we see the dawning of a new world, with your values at its heart; a world of justice, mercy and humility.

May the poor not be forgotten in the midst of crisis.

All: Father, as your people, help us to raise our voices. As your church worldwide, let us rise up in prayer, in speaking out and in demonstrating your way of life, so that out of the ruins of this current crisis might come help for a better world.

Amen


This second video is just a glimpse of the march during a sunny spell (there were a couple of light rain showers). Spot the yellow 'Tear Fund' placards.


The speakers at the final Hyde Park rally were from the wider 'Put People First' coalition - it was perhaps disappointing that no-one from any of the Christian relief agencies had the opportunity to speak (I didn't quite stay until the end though, so there's a chance that they did after I left). Many of the speeches had an anti-capitalist message, elements of which I remain to be convinced by. But the weakness of the event was always going to be the enormous diversity of the organisations involved and their widely differing aims and objectives.

Overall, a worthwhile event. I personally was disappointed by the turnout at the service, but it didn't really surprise me given the lack of interest there seemed to be from Christians on blogs and social networking sites in the week leading up to it (feel free to disagree or tell me why that is in the comments below). However, the 'Put People First' event as a whole seemed to be well reported in the Sunday papers and appears to have done well in terms of getting its message out. Let's hope that the G20 leaders, meeting this week, heed that message. I will be blogging from the G20 meeting - more about that in another post.


I have campaigning fatigue and didn't think the event had any real focus - people were campaigning about very different things, sometimes contradicting each other. Had better things to be doing like digging garden.

joe | 30/03/2009 12:35:29

I wanted my children to grow up knowing the importance of political involvement. I took them on their first anti Iraq war march at Easter 2002. A year later we marched again with a million others declaring not in my name. A week later we were there again with what felt like just a handful of people in mourning following the invasion. All I succeeded in teaching them is that what they do doesn't make a difference.

Johanna | 30/03/2009 20:14:55

It's not very hard to attack capitalism, but it's far harder to defend the alternatives.

BIGDAN | 31/03/2009 11:01:47




back back to March 2009 up back to top


© Church Times 2006 - All rights reserved

Website by Baigent