12 May 2025

At the end of the Second World War, the British churches set up an organisation called, ‘Christian Reconstruction in Europe’. It raised £1 million to help refugees and to restore life in a bruised and battered Europe.

Since then, it has grown enormously both in terms of income and influence. As Christian Aid it has become instrumental in encouraging local congregations to become more  compassionate and less materialistic. In recent years, it has challenged our lifestyle and encouraged us to become more politically alert!

As Christian Aid celebrates its eightieth anniversary, we must never forget that this organisation is supremely the Kirk’s offspring. It had its birth in the compassionate heart of a Church of Scotland minister, the Revd. Douglas Lister, Army Chaplain stationed in Germany.

In the aftermath of the war, he was approached by an officer in the Luftwaffe, to help some 80,000 German refugees consigned to barns and bombed out houses nearby. Lister approached senior officers but got short shrift. Fearing that this would be construed as  fraternising with the enemy, they wanted nothing to do with it.

Lister was not so easily dismissed. He appealed to ordinary people through letters written to the churches. And the response was spontaneous and magnanimous. Blankets and food and other supplies were sent from homes within our parishes.

Churches across Europe responded in similar measure and Christian Aid was born. It has never been partisan. It does not exist for Christians but it is the churches response to human need wherever that need exists! Christian Aid Week is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our solidarity.

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