The Dean

A group of small boys are playing serious football on a pitch about 4 meters wide in a rubble strewn alleyway between two one storey squalid breeze block houses. The boys wear no shoes. The ball is battered and old but their ball skills are mesmerising. This is the heart of the shanty town in Aden where 30,000 refugees, mostly Somalis, exist in grinding poverty.

On my recent visit to the Anglican Chaplaincy of Christ Church Aden, I accompanied Peter Crookes, our chaplain there, on a visit to a young Somali woman suffering from cancer.

She lives with her husband and 4 small children in one of the walled off hovels where essential services we take for granted are few or non- existent. Their house is clean, but possessions are few, and like all the other residents of this vast area they have their own harrowing and often tragic story to tell. And these are the lucky ones. The others never made the crossing from Somalia to the Yemen in an open boat at great expense. They were cast overboard to sink or swim.

Peter and Nancy Crookes are on the very front line of Christian ministry and service in the Gulf. With a small group of dedicated medical and support staff they run the Ras Morbat Clinic in their church compound, providing general medical care, baby clinics and the eye clinic for the local area of about 12,000 Yemeni people. Without this facility there would be little or no health provision. Incursion into the refugee township can only be attempted on the basis of personal referral and only scratches the surface of the huge and desperate human need.

Most of the trained and qualified staff in the clinics are Muslims, giving of their services sacrificially in a Christian context. It is here that we experience real inter faith dialogue where a team of dedicated carers work in an environment of tranquility and healing among some of the poorest people of the region, bringing dignity, hope and in many cases the great gift of the restoration of their sight. This is truly interfaith dialogue at its best and most effective.

When we stand this great work in Aden alongside the equally demanding ministry of Andrew White and others in Baghdad, exposed to the ever present conflict in Iraq, and the contrasting ministry of hospitality of the other Gulf chaplaincies, then we can only be humbled by the great breadth of responsibility laid upon the church in this area. We are constantly reminded of churches and groups who assure us of their prayers for us. This is so very reassuring, encouraging and energizing.

While the world is in danger of becoming preoccupied with the threats of rising commodity prices, particularly oil, food shortages and the effects of climate change, I pray the needs of the poorest of the poor and those ministering to their desperate needs will not be forgotten. We are entrusted with the realisation of the vision of Isaiah 60:2-5
“Though darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you…then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy.”

And so they will when we see this great work going on before our very eyes and may we not be found wanting in enabling the work to continue and grow and become established.

Alan Hayday