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Lyndon Bowring CHAIRMAN
We’re living in extraordinary times. Although I only recently wrote to you, circumstances necessitate me being in touch again. Who could ever have predicted the way the coronavirus challenge would interrupt our lives in such a dramatic fashion? It’s my personal conviction that God’s immutable, eternal, sovereign decrees will never be changed by anything we do. However, God’s desires, which are beyond counting, are totally different. Fulfilling these day by day is something only human beings created in His image can do. This is why we pray ‘Thy will be done’ – which I believe can only be ‘done’ by us! Many of these desires are unique to us personally so let’s continue to ask Him to reveal what He wants us to do each day. You’ll be encouraged to know that, whilst CARE staff are now safely working remotely from home, CARE’s Westminster, Belfast and Glasgow offices are still operating, even though Parliament is now in recess, Government business will continue. Controversial legislation is in danger of being rushed through with limited scrutiny: the ‘no fault’ divorce Bill; the imposition of new abortion regulations in Northern Ireland; the liberalisation of abortion elsewhere in the UK; and fresh attempts to legalise physician-assisted suicide. CARE worked closely with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP to require the Government to produce guidance on helping victims of modern slavery by means of an amendment to the emergency Coronavirus Bill and we will continue to keep up the pressure on this. During the debate on this Bill, pro-abortion campaigners tried to persuade the Government to allow home abortions and abortion consultations with just one doctor over Skype. We thank God that they have so far been unsuccessful. Our Public Affairs team will remain vigilant about these matters.
In 2017 a Commission on Loneliness discovered that more than 9 million people living in Britain today feel lonely and that almost a quarter of a million older people hadn’t spoken to a friend or family member for a month or more. This loneliness problem is now compounded by the fact that millions of us are having to ‘self-isolate.’ God alone knows what this will mean for the most frail, fearful and vulnerable people, but even if we’re in self-isolation ourselves we can still encourage each other by card, letter, email or telephone. Only yesterday a dear friend prayed with me over the phone! This is an incredible opportunity for the Church to declare God’s truth and demonstrate Christ’s compassion in every community throughout our world. The Bible tells us ‘to pray without ceasing’ – so I’m pleased to enclose CARE’s ‘10 Ways to Pray about Coronavirus’ resource. If you need further copies, please let us know. We’re deeply grateful for your ongoing support, which means so much to us and it would be a great help to us, if you don’t already, if you could donate online. This is simply done by visiting care.org.uk/donate. Of course, if this isn’t your preference, please continue sending your greatly appreciated cheque as usual. Contacting us by email is always the easiest and the best way for us to communicate, so it would be a real blessing if you could let us know your email address, if you haven’t done so already. You can do this by emailing us at mail@care.org.uk, contacting our team on the CARE mobile on 07718 494 586 or using the enclosed form. We’ll respond to every enquiry, but in the circumstances, this may take us longer so thank you in advance for your patience! We’ll all continue to need God’s grace, wisdom, courage, patience, mercy and hope in this time of testing. Already His common grace is at work, with people caring for one another in many new and surprising ways – something of a throwback to the public spiritedness of the wartime blitz about which our parents and grandparents told us! Let’s pray that God’s saving grace will also be at work in wonderful ways with more people coming to know Him. Yours in His faithfulness,
Rev Lyndon Bowring CHAIRMAN
CAREORGUK
CARE.ORG.UK
CARE (Christian Action Research & Education) | Chief Executive Nola Leach | Chairman Rev Lyndon Bowring 53 Romney St, London, SW1P 3RF | 020 7233 0455 | mail@care.org.uk | Charity No: 1066963 | Scottish Charity No: SC038911