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Friday, December 22, 2006

Ethical Giving



In the Christmas Meme that's going around, there's a question ... do you like better to give or receive presents? I came across a page at Sacred Space (in their Advent section) on Ethical Giving, and it made me think. Here's what's on the page ...

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‘It is more blessed to give rather than receive’ (Acts 20:35). A quote from the Bible which many of us have seen or heard often but how many of us have actually thought about what this quote means? This simple sentence sums up the entire concept of Christian giving and sharing with our brothers and sisters wherever they may be.

This concept takes on a special significance at Christmas. In our increasingly consumer-driven society of today, it is easy to be swept up in the secular aspects of the season. We are bombarded by advertising from September onwards aimed at getting us to spend more on goods that we don’t need. A never-ending spiral of wanting more than those around us can see us totally losing sight of the big picture. What is the big picture? It’s a very simple one.

Advent is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the antithesis of the glitz and commercialism of the modern Christmas. It is a time to reflect on all that is good in our lives and indeed a time to thank God for all that we have.

Millions of people around the world will die over the Christmas period from hunger, disease and conflict. These are the people that Jesus Christ surrounded himself with during his time on earth.

It is time for us to consider those less fortunate than ourselves and we can show our solidarity with them in the simplest of ways. This Christmas Trócaire, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is offering people a tangible way to directly help families in developing countries through its Global Gift campaign. The campaign offers a collection of practical life-saving gifts that people can purchase on behalf of friends and loved ones and Trócaire will distribute to those vulnerable families in the developing world.

The gifts include birth certificates for children in Mozambique so they can avail of state services; olive trees for farmers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; kits to help returning refugees in Sudan; seeds and tools for communities in Liberia; goats for rural communities in Africa; grain storage facilities to help farmers in Central America; care provision for orphans affected by HIV/AIDS; the gift of water to help communities all over the world and houses for Burmese refugees in Thailand.

So this Christmas try to remember what the season of Advent should be about and help those who are crying out for justice in the world.

For further information on the Global Gift campaign go to: www.trocaire.org/globalgift



5 Comments:

Blogger Deacon Denny said...

Crystal --

That's a great collection of gifts -- I have to save this post for next year, and put it in our parish bulletin early in Advent! CRS also publishes a catalogue of Christmas gift ideas in a similar mode.

I have to say that traditional Christmas gift-giving evokes bad memories for me of my childhood: wandering through stores, not having a clue what to get people, and feeling terribly anxious about it. Of course getting gifts was wonderful, but afterwards I often felt a sense of emptiness associated with it.

I am glad we have the season of Advent, and appreciate what you wrote about this being a time to reflect on all that is good in our lives, and to thank God for all that we have.

It's ironic that the beginning of Advent sort of corresponds with our national holiday of Thanksgiving and ends with our highly commercialized Christmas. I've often found it very fitting that everything secular about Christmas ends on December 25th, whereas we Christians keep celebrating it until after Epiphany.

Blessings to you.

12:08 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:38 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Denny,

Merry Christmas to you and your family :-)

thanks for the comment. You did see that it wasn't me who wrote the article, but the guys at Sacred Space, right?

I remember being anxious about gift receiving as a kid. It made me so uncomfortable. I was afraid I wouldn't seem appeciative enough, or that I wouldn't deserve them, or that I wouldn't like them. And when I got older, there was the weirdness of how much you spent on each person ... there had to be parity, and it seemed like you cared more about a person if you spent more. Yes, I AM the product of a disfunctional family :-)

5:03 PM  
Blogger Steve Bogner said...

I'd rather give than receive! It's more fun; and besides, if I really want/need something I'd rather pick i out myself :)

Merry Christmas!

6:35 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Steve,

giving is fun! Thanks - have a Merry Christmas :-)

11:15 AM  

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