Hope – the forgotten word

“These three remain, faith, hope and love”.

 Much is spoken of love, from Hollywood to Hollyoaks, from new forms of spiritulity, new age, and religious traditions as old as the hills. Faith is something that is still creeping along, infecting and impacting a post-modern and supposedly secular society. Inspite of attempts to debunk a creator, notably Richard Dawkins’ trite and painfully modern “the God Delusion”, the ancient belief in God is gaining popularity. This surge was  demonstrated aptly by the recent mass pilgrimage to visit St Therese of Lisieux. But what of hope? Newspapers lack it (especially the Daily Mail), all this talk of climate change and potential ecological catastrophe, credit crunches, even the great orator Obama has been dragged out of poetry and into prose. The Christian church talk a lot about faith , and a great deal about love, but hope is the lost word in the famous trio. Hope is something we all need, and something I pondered afresh whilst in the wonderful city of Melbourne with our friends Chris and Jane. It was in the warmth of Chris and Jane’s living room that I followed the link to a movie that is both haunting and insanely beautiful, it will get you thinking about the forgotten word. Check out the movie here.

 I watched the film around about the same time as visiting Concern Australia, where a bunch of gung ho missionaries fly in the face of cynicism and empower the most hope-less of characters in down town Melbourne. Concern Austalia started withe John Smiths ‘God Squad’, a biker community that expresses itself as a church. ‘God Squad’ is seen as the chaplaincy to the huge biker community in Australia. Since its early days CA has extended its work to homelessness, drug rehabilitation, the new wave of gangs growing up in Melbourne and a project working with school drop outs and young offenders called “Hand break turn”. See the pics… but this place epitomises ‘hope’, community development at its best, you can’t help but stand back and be in awe. Old warehouses are being turned into mechanic workshops and kids are being taught skills that schools can’t offer. The result: increased self esteem, empowerment and employment. Hope is one of the greatest gifts we can give, unlike help it can be truly empowering. Help is often patronising, imposing and disempowering (stangely this is still how we do much of our foreign aid. Read White Mans burden).

Hope is a forgotten word, which is a tragedy as we live in a time when it is desperately needed. Watch the film, it’s amazing!

Graff no Chris and Jane’s pad

Youths of Melbourne at work

Hand break turn, concern Australia

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