From Dr Roger Williamson
Sir, - Having chaired One World Week during the 1990s, when I
worked for the Board for Social Responsibility, I was saddened to
see your report (News, 14 November) that funding pressures may
force the organisation to close.
This year, I preached at an exemplary local event in Mere,
Wiltshire. It was typical of the initiatives taken for many years
by churches and activists: local schoolchildren had made chains of
commitments on the environment and other issues, the spread of
churches were represented, and we celebrated campaigns that we have
been involved in - fairtrade bananas, debt relief, and so on.
What other organisation provides such an open framework -
interfaith - and yet with the clear opportunities for specifically
Christian worship, reaching out to schools and towns; educational
and challenging, but leaving huge scope for local originality?
Very few (if any other) initiatives offer this kind of
opportunity for local initiative and international vision. It would
be a pity if the organisation were to die and the field be left to
the multiplicity of "single-issue" organisations. It would indeed
be a pity if development and other organisations stop funding the
minimal secretariat that has made so much possible for so many
years.
Is our vision still the "healing of the nations", or has it
shrunk to "my favourite cause"?
ROGER WILLIAMSON
The Toll House, London Road
Ashington
West Sussex RH20 3JT