wfn.org | Methodists live by faith in midst of foot and mouth crisis

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

April 9, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom* (212) 870-3803*New
York10-21-71B{169}

NOTE:  A sidebar  (UMNS #170) is available for use with this story.

ByKathleen LaCamera*

CHESHIRE, England (UMNS) - Each morning when Martin Johnson goes out to milk
his 600 goats, he wonders if it will be for the last time.

Only days ago he learned that livestock on his neighbor's farm had
contracted foot and mouth disease. Johnson cannot help but worry that his
animals will be next. "There is a huge amount of stress - it's like a roller
coaster, up and down, up and down," he said. "These are your animals, your
livelihood."

The foot and mouth epidemic currently sweeping through Britain is caused by
a highly contagious virus affecting animals with cloven feet such as cows,
sheep and pigs. It is entirely harmless to humans. Due to the virulence and
numbers of different strains of this virus, the most effective form of
controlling the disease is killing or "culling" animals that have been
exposed. Estimates suggest that two percent of the national herd has had to
be destroyed as of early April.
	
For weeks, Johnson, his wife and their three children have had to monitor
their movements on and off their 440-acre farm. If their animals come down
with the disease their farm will be completely quarantined with no one
allowed in or out and their flock, the fruit of the family's hard work over
the past decade, would have to be destroyed.  

Johnson said he thought he had weathered some truly difficult times when his
wife Rosemary was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. He admitted that
foot and mouth is now taking a terrible toll as well. "It's diabolical," he
added. "This is a virus you can't even see and it's so quick...we're just
having to wait it out. We have to trust and pray it will be all right."

Because of restrictions, the Rev. Paul Wilson has not been able to visit
members of Knutsford Methodist Church, like the Johnsons, on their farms.
His pastoral care, like that of so many Methodist ministers in rural areas
around Britain, has been a mainly one of prayer and telephone conversations.
Wilson spoke to one farmer over the phone while her animals were being
slaughtered.

While those efforts might not seem like much, the farming community is
telling Wilson they feel the church is standing by them and caring for them
at an extremely difficult time. The church also held an evening prayer vigil
that drew more than 100 people. 

"The farming community recognizes we're remembering them," Wilson said.
"They are looking at a lifetime's work disappearing."

Farmer Richard Clarkson grew up in the Snelson Methodist Church just down
the road from Knutsford. His great-grandfather, also a farmer, helped found
the church and his mother used to run the Sunday School. Clarkson is
Johnson's neighbor; the farmer with a confirmed case of foot and mouth among
his animals. His 1,100 sheep were slaughtered in late March. "It's hard to
describe what it feels like," he said. "This disease just came and got them.
It's like a tornado has gone through the farm and sucked up all your
animals."

Clarkson pointed out that while he and his father were vigilant in checking
their sheep, they were also virtually helplessness to protect their animals
from the fast-spreading disease that can travel on the bottom of birds'
feet, on car tires, on people's clothing, even in the wind. 

When it came time to cull his flock, he helped round up his animals, but
could not stay to watch the slaughter. All the young sheep and lambs were
given an overdose of anaesthetic while vets cradled them in their arms.

Despite government compensation for their losses, Clarkson said the whole
thing has "sickened" him. His father, who also lived through the last major
outbreak of foot and mouth in Britain in 1967, may retire.	At 32,
Clarkson himself said he wanted to learn from the mistakes that have been
made and look to a future that he believed would still find him in farming.

The isolation facing farmers like Richard Clarkson and Martin Johnson at all
stages of this crisis exerts enormous pressure. Not only are there practical
problems with everyday routines like shopping, children going to school, and
visits to family and friends, but there is a real fear of endangering other
people's livelihoods as well.  

Clarkson's cousin, Liz McGrath, also a member of the Knutsford church, runs
a dairy farm with her husband Ian. The couple come from farm families that
reach back at least four generations. Only in their early 20s, they have
developed their dairy herd from 16 to 134 head of cattle in just two years.
They count themselves lucky - for the moment their livestock do not have
foot and mouth and they can still sell their milk for consumption within
Britain.

"There's this awful pressure of knowing that if you report a case of foot
and mouth on your farm you are going to take out all your neighbors as
well," McGrath told United Methodist News Service. 

In the worst hit areas, vulnerable animals within a mile or so of a
confirmed foot and mouth case are slaughtered as a precaution, whether they
are infected or not. With 78 farm suicides this year alone, McGrath is
worried this disease will be the last straw for farmers who have already
suffered with BSE or "mad cow" infections in the recent past as well.  

Prince Charles has pledged $700,000 to six national charities helping
farmers to cope with the ravages of foot and mouth. The Rev. Gordon Gatward,
a Methodist minister, is director of the Arthur Rank Centre (ARC), which
oversees three of these six charities -- the Addlington Fund, the Rural
Stress Information Network and the Farm Crisis Network. Based at the
National Agricultural Centre, ARC is supported in part by Methodists and
other British churches and serves the needs of the rural community and its
churches. 

The charities work through local contacts, such as agricultural chaplains,
to provide appropriate grass roots support where it is needed most. In one
instance, a volunteer coordinator for the Farm Crisis Network phoned to
report that the wives of four different farmers in his area had asked police
to remove guns from their farm to lessen the risk of suicide.  

Commenting on the crisis, Gatward said, "The prayers and encouragement of
the church, locally and nationally, are invaluable in this situation, not
only for those whose stock has been infected but for everyone involved in
the industry, and especially for those providing on the ground support, who
will often be farmers themselves."  

ARC also asked that all British churches make Sunday, May 20, a special day
to remember the rural community. British Methodists also joined with
Anglicans in a special appeal on March 25, Britain's traditional  "Mothering
Sunday." Special collections went to support the Addlington Fund, which
helps anyone directly dependent on agriculture, from farmers to contract
milkers to tree surgeons to fencers. 

But it is not only these people who are suffering in this crisis. Tourism,
which some estimate counts for as much as ten times of local business in
some parts of Britain has been hit very hard as well.

Everyone from bed and breakfast owners to those who run teashops and
restaurants to people who are employed by tourist attractions has been
affected. And while farmers and those related to agriculture are eligible
for compensation and charity funds like those administered by ARC, those
related to tourism are not. Estimates are that Britain is loosing millions
each week because people are staying away from the countryside. 

The Rev. Richard Hall, the Cumbria Methodist District Tourism Officer, said
that perhaps this year of all years, Christians in Britain and abroad should
think about spending their vacations here.

"People in the Lake District have had cancellation after cancellation," he
explained. "Many of these businesses live on the edge of financial
viability. .... if people begin to have things on their books for the
future, it could make a big difference." (See Sidebar story)

Hall reported that while walking and other activities that bring people into
contact with farms are off limits, there is still much to see and do on the
lakes, in the villages and even from a car. He said there is a lot of
misinformation around, citing one news piece that reported "the normally
blue skies of the Lake District are black with smoke of burning carcasses,"
a description he called "patent nonsense."
 
But just beyond the Lake District, in another part of Cumbria where some of
the first cases of foot and mouth appeared, pastors like the Rev. Barrie
Lees already see their parishioners beginning to look towards the future.
Almost 90 percent of the members of his Methodist circuit are directly
involved in agriculture.  

Lees said it has been the practical expressions of concern shown during this
crisis that has made a difference. His churches, working in partnership with
other Cumbria churches, have organized a good-neighbor scheme getting
volunteers to deliver shopping, prescriptions and other essential items to
farm gates. They also joined together to create an ecumenical bulletin that
goes out every two weeks keeping congregations and ministers up to date on
the latest developments.  

"In the midst of hopelessness, there is tremendous willingness to help each
other,." He pointed out.

Lees' parishioner Brian Armstrong, who lost 1500 sheep and 500 cattle in the
early days of the outbreak, noted the importance of the church support. It
makes a big difference when you're in a desperate time to know that people
are thinking about you," he said. 

Armstrong's family has been farming in Cumbria since the 14th century and he
expects to continue to be involved in farming in the future, but in a
different way. Since his animals were culled he has been working with
national government officials trying to contain the outbreak in Cumbria. 

"I think this crisis will alter the face of agriculture in this country," he
said. "It's time to start over again and look at what we're doing....I want
to be involved helping farmers. After all these years, I want to give
something back." 

More information about the ARC's Addlington Fund is available by calling
(011) 44 2476 696969 or on the Internet at www.ruralnet.org.uk/arc/
<http://www.ruralnet.org.uk/arc/>  
 

Those wishing to send letters of support can write to farmers in care of
Knutsford Methodist Church, 22 Glebelands Road, Knutsford, Cheshire WA 16,
United Kingdom, or by e-mail to paulwilson@glebelands99.freeserve.co.uk

For the Cumbria district, write in care of the Rev. Barrie Lees, the Manse,
Kirkoswald, Cumbria, CA10 1EW, United Kingdom.

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*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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