Archbishop of Canterbury's New Year Message
Friday 1 January 2010
In his BBC New Year Message the Archbishop of Canterbury sets out that in this global society we now inhabit "risk and suffering are everybody's problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family."
As we enter a new decade, the Archbishop reflects on The Millennium Development Goals, eight key objectives about tackling poverty and disease, agreed by over 200 nations and international bodies, which "summed up for a lot of us the hopes we had for a new look at our world."
Dr Williams recognises that it has been a "terrible and gruelling ten years in all kinds of ways, with terrorism and war and natural disaster and the financial collapse of the last fifteen months. But the Archbishop says "before we shrug our shoulders and lower our expectations, let's not lose sight of one enormous lesson we can learn from the last decade.
"The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local. Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don't stop at national frontiers. It's one thing that terrorism and environmental challenge and epidemic disease have taught us."
He asks us to recognise how our actions can make a difference:
"We're still falling short in the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals, but that doesn't mean we can forget them or water them down. We've seen some signs of change; we can make more, by supporting efforts to help children out of poverty across the world – and locally as well – by campaigns to protect our environment, by keeping up pressure on our governments."
"We share the risks. The big question is, can we share the hopes and create the possibilities? Because it's when we do share the hopes that we really see what it is to belong together as human beings, discovering our own humanity as we honour the human dignity of others."
The Archbishop urges us try to respond to problems that are geographically remote as we would to those of our immediate family:
"Above all, it's about not losing our hope for change and our love and respect for the dignity of everyone. In a world where risk and suffering are everybody's problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family. Let's respond just as we do when our immediate family is in need or trouble. We may be amazed by the difference we can make."
Read the full message: Anglican Communion News Service