Water of life - Bishop in Europe's Lent Appeal 2008

Lent begins with our remembering the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness – a dry and desolate place, a place of spiritual stripping down and testing. When, many years ago I spent two months in an Egyptian monastery, I was told that the desert around it was called Shihet, which means ‘the place of the weighing of the heart’. The desert is dry and waterless, and is therefore an image for spiritual thirsting. It highlights the absolute necessity of water for our lives.

My Lent Appeal this year is in partnership with Christian Aid to raise money for Water Action Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a beautiful but very poor country with a long Christian tradition, which I know well. In Ethiopia, as in so many poor countries, clean, safe drinking water is urgently needed. You will find details in the information provided by Christian Aid, and by Roland Price, a priest who assists at our chaplaincy in The Hague, and who is also a distinguished hydrologist, who writes powerfully about the importance of water. As you will see for every euro we raise the European Union will match it with an additional three euros. Please give generously in response as always to the generosity of God.

With every blessing for Lent, Holy Week and Easter,
+ Geoffrey Gibraltar

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