Page 2 - Moravian Messenger May 2021

Editorial
I have just signed a Christian Aid public letter calling for people across the world to have access to a safe and effective COVID vaccination, the People's Vaccine. We are emerging from lockdown but are still conscious of hands - face - space, and we have clean running water and good medical services.
As Moravians we have an international awareness of our unity in Christ with sisters and brothers in many different countries and situations. We understand the concept of a shared humanity and our neighbour is as much the one who is far away from us as well as the one next door. We know that God's love for people is not differentiated by the country they live in or the facilities they have access too.
The COVID crisis has also reminded us of our interdependence, and of our responsibilities to care for one another. We can only be safe when all of us are safe. If one part of the world is left to suffer the COVID pandemic, then all parts of the world will be put at ever-increasing risk as variants develop.
The access of people to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines cannot be dependent on people's wealth, status, or nationality. So many of us here in the UK have been blessed to have had a vaccine and in some cases two vaccinations. We have a moral responsibility to play our part in making sure that everyone, regardless of nationality, ethnicity and income can have the same blessing of vaccination that we have had.
It is 40 years since smallpox was declared to have been eradicated from the human population following a concerted world effort led by the World Health Organisation with
international funding and cooperation. The smallpox eradication campaign was not perfect and lessons from it have been learnt. COVID is not the same as smallpox and spreads in different ways but the principles of observation, reducing ways of transmission, treatment and mass vaccination remain.
There has been an incredible success in developing safe and effective COVID vaccines in record time, and we have shared the relief of seeing them being rolled out to so many of us. But it is a tragedy that for those in most low- and middle- income countries vaccines are only beginning to trickle in. At the current pace of vaccine production and distribution, people in much of the world may not be vaccinated until at least 2024.
We now need a sense of common purpose and urgency to enable the vaccine to be delivered to as many people as possible across the world as quickly as possible. They, as much as we, deserve the protection that it brings. This will require a huge international effort to get the vaccine delivered to every corner of our world.
I am so proud that the Moravian Church is a founder member church of Christian Aid and Christian Aid Ireland. I pray that Governments heed the call to work together on a People's Vaccine and that we have a blessed Christian Aid week from 10th-16th May.
To love is to take action!
Sr Sarah Groves
Editorial Team
Our climate crisis
continued
The great tragedy of climate change is that it is the world's poorest and most vulnerable who will suffer the most, despite them doing the least to cause it. As food and water supplies come under threat the world is likely to see an upsurge in climate refugees. There is a growing awareness of the problem and many governments are at least talking about how to tackle the problem. The UN climate summit of 2015 in Paris did result in some initiatives being established, but while they may 'talk the talk' the worry is that change may not happen sufficiently quickly.
The Doomsday scenario may not be inevitable. We can all do a little bit to help reduce the problem such as turning down our heating a little or cutting down on the use of electric driers where possible. But the driver of change has to
be our government and other governments all around the world. They are actively promoting the development of renewable energy such as wind and solar power and paving the way for the internal combustion engine to be replaced by electric vehicles. What is worrying is that not all governments appear to appreciate the urgency of the situation.
During a video message to the UN Security Council at the beginning of March 2021, Sir David Attenborough pleaded for countries around the world to come together to declare a climate emergency and realise that climate change is the biggest threat to our security that modern humans have ever faced.
We all have a duty of stewardship as trustees of the planet. If deciding to do
nothing feels more comfortable we should realise the need to take our responsibilities seriously, if not for ourselves then for our grandchildren and future generations. This planet is our home, entrusted to us by God who commands us to take care of the earth, but His edict to have dominion over it does not mean to have complete domination and exploitation of it. Sadly, this is what has happened; we continue to overuse the land, carry out massive deforestation, and over exploit the earth's fuel and mineral
resources. Planet Earth is our home and if we continue to abuse it, it will be a choice we will surely live to regret.
Trevor Kernohan
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© Sr Sarah Groves