Travelling south

On Friday 17 I travelled south to Sind and discussed various issues with Rt Rev Rafique Masih, Bishop of Hyderabad, including how Church of Scotland grants can continue to support diocesan priorities.



Mrs Caleb &  Bishop Rafique at St John's High School, built with WMC funding

On Saturday we went to Mirpurkhas where I saw the second floor containing classrooms, science and computer laboratories at St John’s High School. Church of Scotland grants had paid for this construction over the past two years and now the rooms have to be painted and equipped. The Principal, Mrs Najma Caleb, asked that her thanks be conveyed to the Church’s World Mission Council for this financial support. Students from the Muslim, Christian and Hindu faith communities all study at the school showing the diocese’s commitment to service to all, regardless of faith.

On Sunday morning I joined the congregation at the refurbished 150-year old St Thomas’ Cathedral for the communion service and was introduced by Bishop Rafique. We sang Psalm 99 in Punjabi to the tune of Auld Lang Syne and Rev Naseer John preached on being Children of God from 1John 3:1-11.

When I arrived in Sind on Friday, it was in time to see a dramatic presentation of the story of Ruth by girls and young women at the end of a meeting of the diocesan women’s fellowship.

They performers had obviously put a lot of work into this production. They knew their lines, had prepared costumes and knew their places. But as the narrator intoned her way through the Bible verses my feeling was “What has this to do with the lives of the women present, or those who endured drought earlier this year, those who are displaced in camps because of the floods, those who suffer from feudal violence and misogynist prejudice today and every day in Sind and elsewhere in Pakistan?”

Why does the Church not encourage and enable people to read, study, understand and use the Bible in a way that connects with their experiences and empowers them? This, of course, would involve risk, would involve giving away some power, would mean being challenged and maybe even changed, at least for those who are currently in authority and control the agenda.

To borrow a slogan, What Would Jesus Do?