Weekly Blog - 26 December 2022 - The Good News from 2022
2022: a challenging year?
The year 2022 will be remembered as a grim one for many. The UK, Europe and the world have faced one crisis after another (many of them the focus of Arise actions and blogs in recent months). Russia’s ruthless invasion of Ukraine in February returned a major land war to Europe, on a scale not seen since the Second World War, and all the corresponding brutality that comes with it. Massive global demand for fossil fuel energy, prompted mainly by economies opening up again after the Covid pandemic, and also by Russian restrictions on oil exports, has driven up energy prices around the world. This has raised the price of food, transport, goods and almost every commodity, driving global inflation and a cost of living crisis. This in turn has triggered a huge wave of strikes in multiple countries. We have seen a massive and tragic food crisis in East Africa and devastating floods in Pakistan as a result of global climate change. At home in the UK, we have faced the death of Queen Elizabeth II (Britain’s longest reigning, and much loved monarch); political turmoil and three prime ministers in quick succession; and the results of the 2021 census showing us Christianity in the UK has declined significantly in the last ten years.
Good news from 2022
So as 2022 comes to a close, it seems like a good time to remind ourselves that bad news is not the only story. There have in fact been many positive changes that have happened in 2022, that should encourage us. The Corona virus that has caused massive death and disruption around the world continues to be gradually brought under control through vaccinations, growing immunity, and better policies to manage and live with the disease. We have seen a historic protest movement against the repressive extremist Islamic regime in Iran, which contains real hope for greater democracy, human rights and freedom in that nation. Similar protests in China against the authorities’ handling of Covid 19, and even against the Chinese regime itself, harbour similar, if longer term, hopes for real reform in that country. The recently completed World Cup has shone a much needed global spotlight on human rights abuses in Qatar, again holding out hope for reform and improvement.
The war in Ukraine, whilst tragic of course, could have been so much worse by this stage, ten months on from the start of this latest phase in February. Russia’s military might has proven to be ill equipped, poorly led, logistically incompetent, and with shockingly low morale, in the face of solid Ukrainian defence. Free democratic counties around the world have been remarkably united and resolute in their determination not to allow such global intimidation to go unopposed, and have successfully supported Ukraine and contained the conflict and prevented it escalating. In the UK, months of political chaos appear to have ended with the installation of a more stable government in October, and a much loved Queen has been replaced by the new King Charles III with a strong track record in environmental and social concerns.
In the global fight against climate change, elections in Australia in May and Brazil in October have returned governments in these key globally significant G20 countries with a much more positive and constructive approach, making progress at the global level significantly easier. Media coverage of the UN Climate negotiations in Egypt in November was unprecedented. Whilst progress in many areas was limited, the talks did nevertheless result in a historic agreement to establish a ‘loss and damage’ fund to provide developing countries who are the worst hit by climate change with crucial funds to compensate them and support them to manage and adapt to the damage caused. Even more significantly, UN negotiations on biodiversity loss ended on 19 December with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which commits the world to a historic and much needed target of protecting 30% of all land, ocean and coastal territory by 2030, to preserve wildlife and natural habitats. Elsewhere, new UN negotiations for a global treaty to reduce and end plastic pollution got off to a very good start this year.
Christians have hope
For us as Christians, the point of reminding ourselves of the positive progress that has been achieved in 2022 is not to naively think all is well in the world, and we can sit back, relax and watch things improve. The challenges and suffering the world has faced in 2022 are very real, and there is no reason to believe that things will automatically improve. Rather, the point is to be encouraged, that in the midst of such darkness, God is still at work in the world. The Arise Manifesto (Arise’s Christian vision for a better world), explores what the Bible teaches us about how we are living in the period between Jesus’ resurrection and his return. We see God’s kingdom beginning to break into our broken world, in all the positive change we have seen in the last year, but it has not yet come in full. As Christians we are privileged to play a part in this. Our mission and calling is to extend God’s kingdom and gradually transform the world around us through evangelism, discipleship, fighting social injustice, eliminating poverty and restoring the environment. Arise exists to play a small part in helping us to live out that calling.
Ultimately we know, that although the world will undoubtedly face hard times in the future, as it has in the past, in the end God will have the victory and Jesus will return to usher in God’s kingdom in full, where all suffering, conflict and injustice will cease, all poverty end, and humanity shall live in harmony with God’s restored creation. As we hear in Revelation, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21: 3 – 4), and in Isaiah, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat … They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa 11: 6 – 9).
So let us go into 2023 inspired and encouraged that God is at work in our world, that real positive change at scale has happened in the past, that it can happen again in the future, and determined to play our part in rolling out God’s kingdom and changing our world, in the knowledge that in the end God will have the victory. Let us arise.
Find out more
Find out more about how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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