8:34am Wednesday 24th September 2008
By John Inge
AT a conference for clergy last week someone suggested that, in present circumstances, the term ‘safe as a bank’ would be a good working definition of a contradiction in terms.
Watching employees of Lehman Brothers leaving the once mighty institution for the last time with their possessions in a plastic bag was an affecting sight.
One might have been tempted to think that those who had, until the day before, commanded such enormous salaries deserved little sympathy but it is not only them who will be the losers.
All of us are being and will be affected by the turbulence of global financial markets.
The market economy has undoubtedly brought us great benefits but after the fall of communism there was a tendency among some to think that it could solve all our problems.
‘Leave it to the markets’ was the mantra.
What is going on now is a stark reminder to us of its fallibility and that we need something much more solid at the foundation of our society.
The market has improved our quality of life enormously but it has also encouraged an ‘I shop therefore I am’ culture of consumerism which has a vacuum at its heart.
It cannot even be trusted to deliver the increased living standards that it promises.
What can help us find our bearings in this storm?
The Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, reminds us that ‘we have at our disposal a resource of unparalleled power with which to confront the problems of a new age.
That resource, neither mysterious nor difficult to understand, is morality, specifically the Judeo-Christian tradition.
He goes on to suggest that for some time it has been under attack but that all is not lost for Britain is ‘still a powerfully moral nation.
Our sense of connectedness, one to another, remains.
But our self-knowledge has become temporarily obscured.
We have lost the habit of telling the story that explains us to ourselves as a moral nation Our society is an amnesiac one which sometimes prefers to forget the importance of its history, particularly its Christian history.
The Christian faith, which provided a secure anchor for our society for generations, is more needed now that ever before.
The light of faith has shone brightly over the centuries in Worcester, the Faithful City, and I hope and pray that it will once again enlighten our society here and everywhere.
It is a far safer bet than any bank.
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