As individuals, how can we make changes and influence leaders at every level around the world to ensure we don’t go back to our old ways after Covid-19? Please finish reading this and make some suggestions. I feel a great sense of urgency as the window of opportunity will be small.

 

“Even as a member of an oppressed community, you’re always an individual, but during a crisis of this magnitude [ie: Coronavirus], you do not have the luxury of responding as an individual. Suffering [of a community in crisis] cannot be absorbed by individuals, no matter how tenuous and invisible the bonds of community are. Individuals cannot respond. You must do it as community, for safety, for comfort, and for survival.” (Barbara Holmes)

We are a global community all facing this Coronavirus crisis together. In some ways it is a leveller, whilst in other ways it is emphasising gross inequalities in societies and globally.

When it is over, we MUST NOT go back to our old ways. We must learn from and maintain many of the changes we have been forced to make now but were unwilling to make before. For example, air pollution has already been dramatically decreased because of the enforced restrictions.

But we cannot do it on our own – only as a global community.

So when this pandemic is over, we MUST ensure our leaders WORK TOGETHER selflessly on behalf of our global community to give our whole world, with its abundance of inter-dependent life, a better, more equal, secure and sustainable future, even if it means accepting restrictions of what we have so often considered our rights. But HOW do we set about this?

My biggest fear about this pandemic is that we, “the world”, will all too easily slip back into all our old ways. Having got into such a terrible and dangerous mess, we really have been given a second chance to try and get things right.

Through the many and various forms of acute and long-term suffering and the deaths of so many, as well as the far-reaching restrictions imposed on us because of the Coronavirus pandemic, we have an opportunity to evaluate and make a new start. We mustn’t waste the sacrifice made by so many. I can think of some more personal changes I will make. But, as we have seen from this pandemic, we cannot do it all individually, in an uncoordinated way. Our leaders have to make changes, just as they  had to when tackling the spread and treatment of Covid-19.

There is only a small window of opportunity, so what can each of us do, wherever and whoever we are, to build on the sacrifices and restrictions, maintain the momentum and ensure that our leaders don’t miss this chance to make the necessary changes happen at all levels: locally, nationally and internationally?

How do we start a global movement, or expand and coordinate existing movements, to put pressure on all our governments, organisations, philanthropists, wealthy people, religious leaders and industrial leaders to work together selflessly for the good of the whole world – to save our planet and future generations?

We are all making sacrifices for the sake of others, as well as for ourselves, during the pandemic; and we’re discovering new possibilities and ways of living, so we KNOW it’s possible to change – but perhaps only when it is forced on us.

Are we all willing to continue to make sacrifices for the sake of a different, sustainable future with equality and hope for all? What are our priorities? What rights and freedoms are we willing to give up for the short-term and long-term future and good of the world?

Perhaps one of the biggest problems is that the more powerful and wealthy we are, the harder it is to make the necessary changes, and the temptation will be to carry on as we always have done.

This is URGENT – I feel desperate. This is such a huge opportunity and the consequences will be catastrophic if we don’t act now for the sake of the world. At the age of 75, I know I haven’t got many more years to live. I want to die feeling that I am leaving the world a better place than the one I was born into in 1944, not one where younger generations and the most vulnerable people experience only fear about the future.

But none of us can do it on our own. And we WON’T GET A SECOND CHANCE – time is running out.

May God forgive us our foolish ways – and give us the will and strength, the creativity  and  ingenuity to change those ways for the benefit of our “neighbours”.

It is too serious to sit back and hope others will act for us all. What can we do as individuals, whether we are 18 or 80, to grasp this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? I don’t know the answer……

I have sent this to our MP for Loughborough, to David Lammy (for whom I have a great respect), to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to my Diocesan and Assistant Bishops (Martyn Snow and Guli Francis-Dehqani).

What people of influence can you encourage to act before it is too late?
What other suggestions do you have?
Can you share this (or something in your own words) on social media?

We don’t have the luxury of time.