Live Simply is a call to alms
Bishop John Rawsthorne on a campaign that is inspiring people in many different parts of the Church
2 January 2009

I would like to propose that this New Year may lead us to a search for spirituality and simplicity, as a response to the economic difficulties and uncertainty we feel closing in around us. This year more than ever the Church's time-honoured message about recovering genuine values has profound resonance. With our communities now worried about their jobs and even their homes, many are being forced to make difficult choices.

The idea of living in a simpler way may be viewed as an unwelcome novelty for some in the West, but it has always been promoted by the Church as a positive and life-affirming choice since the days of the early Christian communities. The idea is not to make our lives into barren or deprived spaces but, on the contrary, to find a new and deeper sense of fullness in a return to what really makes us happy at a profound level.

Catholic social teaching has always reminded us that we do not seek material possessions, but right relationships with each other, with God, and with the Earth. We do not strive for what the advertising industry wants us to become, but rather what God wants of us. Living Simply is not about harsh self-denial, but about a generous approach to others, in a shared sense of community.

It can be hard to stand out against the prevailing culture by ourselves, but if we stand together we can help one another in our witness, and this is the main precept behind the Live Simply challenge.

This excellent initiative, launched in Advent two years ago, has the far-reaching intention of transforming our communities through reflection, celebration and action for justice. The central message sounds like a clarion call in these times of consumer crisis and climate change: that God calls us to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with people living in poverty. He is asking us to be different, to say that an alternative way of life is possible.

As Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O'Connor said in Westminster Cathedral when Live Simply began, it means knowing where our real treasure lies, being good stewards of creation, and caring more about justice than about wealth. It means knowing that as long as some go hungry while others feast, we cannot rest, for poverty in our world impoverishes us all.

"God intended the earth and everything in it for the use of all human beings and peoples," wrote Pope Paul VI in Populorum Progressio. Live Simply arose from a desire to mark the 40th anniversary of this great encyclical, which seeks out the core of our human predicament: how can we live in a way that is fair for all? The answer is inspiring: "It involves building a human community where people can live truly human lives... where liberty is not an idle word, where the needy Lazarus can sit down with the rich at the same banquet table."

Even two years ago, long before the credit crunch threatened, the prophetic message of Live Simply found an instant and responsive audience across the Church. The network of members rapidly grew to its current strength of 60 organisations, agencies and dioceses throughout England and Wales.

The call for a return to spiritual values and the deep roots of the initiative in Catholic social teaching convinced me to support Live Simply from its inception, and it is more relevant than ever in today's climate. I am profoundly encouraged to see so many different parts of the Church working together.

I am particularly pleased to see how young people are being inspired by the Live Simply message, driven by a strong sense of equality and fairness, are attracted by the Church's clear vision of what it means to be a human person. This has nothing to do with social status or economics, but looks to our core, to the deep truth about who we are and what gives lasting value to our lives. Catholic social teaching throughout the centuries has urged us to create a world in which human dignity is respected, and every person can enjoy conditions in which to reach their full potential.

This vision implies a profound responsibility for others, a moral solidarity for our global family and for the planet on which we live. That is why the Live Simply message contains the three-fold injunction not only to live simply but to live in a sustainable way, and in solidarity with people who are poor, since all are interconnected. Everything, we believe, is created by God, and so as Christians we must respect the world He created and be good stewards of its resources.

As we Bishops of England and Wales wrote in "The Call of Creation" in 2002: "The environmental crisis has revealed the interdependence of all creation. Whatever we do, whatever choices we make, other people and the earth itself are affected." When we exploit the earth for our own immediate needs, we upset the delicate balance of nature, and become alienated from our right relationship with the earth, with each other, and with God.

While we in the rich world suffer gravely in spirit from this broken relationship, the poor more often retain the wealth that comes from instinctive solidarity with one another, for they know they can only survive through collaboration, not competition. As archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria, said at the Live Simply theological conference: "People who are poor know what it means to depend on God and trust one another - this is what the rich need to learn."

The law of the marketplace, in contrast, is the law of competition, where only the strongest survive. That law could suggest a bleak prospect for many as we enter into a time of economic hardship, and in no way do I wish to minimise the real difficulties that many of us will face in the months ahead.

Yet when the alternative values offered by the laws of faith, hope and love remain strong, then we will find that as a church community we already have rich inner resources on which to draw. At a moment when uncertainty seems all around us, we remember that, recession or no recession, the Church's answer to what can bring real happiness and meaning to our lives never changes.

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