wfn.org | Bangladeshi bishop responds to reports of floods in home diocese

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

ACNS LC026 - 21 July 1998

Bangladeshi bishop responds to reports of floods in home diocese

by Lisa Barrowclough
Lambeth Conference Communications

Seasonal floods reported in Bangladesh may threaten the
livelihoods of farmers in his diocese, Bishop Michael Baroi of
the Diocese of Kushtia in the United Church of Bangladesh said.
Bishop Baroi is attending the Lambeth Conference of Anglican
bishops in Canterbury.

The flooding has "become part of our lives," he said, because the
riverbeds are so filled with silt that they cannot hold all the
rain. "This is only the beginning," he said, since the monsoon
season has just started. Monsoon downpours can last from seven to
10 days, he said.

Bishop Baroi said he extends "every sympathy, especially to those
who have lost crops." This is the time of sowing in Bangladesh,
and the flooding can mean that farmers and their families will be
left with nothing. "Once the crop is lost or damaged," says
Bishop Baroi, "they are under debt for life, contributing to the
great poverty of the nation of Bangladesh.

As the Lambeth Conference considers the issues of international
debt, Bangladesh will be one country identified, according to the
terminology of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, as a "debt loaded
country," Bishop Baroi said.

In his ministry, he said, he struggles with this great poverty of
his country, and said that if he had the chance to ask one
question of God it would be: "Why have you given some so much and
some so little?" He claims that he cannot understand, but that he
does have hope.

Hope is the work of the Church in Bangladesh, he said. Only 0.3%
of the nation's population of 120 million are Christians, and
among them there are 14 thousand Anglicans. The church is very
heavily involved in the concerns of society through social
development programs. "We are a poor church," says Bishop Baroi,
"but our mission is for the poorest!" The church does make a
difference in the lives of the people and of the nation, he said,
because "there is God, and He will look after us."

Bishop Baroi added that he has also found this hope here at
Lambeth among his colleagues from around the globe. 

"There is always hope, because we have started talking," he said.

For further information, contact:

Lambeth Conference Communications
Canterbury Business School
University of Kent at Canterbury
Telephone: 01227 827348/9
Fax: 01227 828085
Mobile: 0374 800212

http://www.lambethconference.org