St Columbkille’s, Rutherglen
13^th September 2025

Nearly 20 years ago a visiting SCIAF partner from Asia wanted to climb Ben Lomond. A parishioner, who worked at SCIAF, knowing that I enjoyed hill walking asked if I would take the visitor up the following day. The weather forecast was horrendous and I tried  to postpone it. It was an awful walk, it was freezing and the mist was so thick we could see no view whatsoever. I frequently suggested that we turn back but to no avail. It wasn’t my most enjoyable day on the hills but, when we discussed poverty and injustice, I will never forget his words: “No one allows their family members to be hungry. If only people in the West could see the poor as their brothers and sister no one would be hungry”. That challenging but truthful statement remains with me to this day.

St Paul teaches that as Christians we are called by God to live in a particular way, and this includes accepting that we are one human family. The more we love others, the more we are true to our nature as Christians. Therefore, the way we treat others is crucial.

Nevertheless, the early Christians in Ephesus were influenced by their society’s values which encouraged distinctions between the rich and the poor as well as between ethnical backgrounds (can we recognise this today?). Paul insists that, if their Christianity is to be genuine, these distinctions must be rooted out. After all, God has brought Jew and Gentile together as one. God creates one single human family.

In 1965 Mgr John Rooney and John McKee understood this when they founded SCIAF in a Rutherglen classroom. They recognised that the poor, even at the furthest edges of the world, were their brothers and sisters. Last year when I visited Zambia and saw field after field of failed crops I drew a parallel with the Irish Famine. One day, at a water pump provided by SCIAF, I asked some women how they had felt when they realised their crops, once again, would fail. Their answers were difficult to hear. The final speaker insisted that God would bring rain, immediately adding that God primarily works through people.

And how right she was! For the past 60 years SCIAF has accompanied and supported countless people through responding to emergencies, advocating justice, facilitating development rather than handouts, combating poverty, hunger, preventable disease, war, Gender Based violence, promoting female empowerment, campaigning about the Climate Crisis, pioneering Loss and Damage and all of this work grounded in Gospel values, Catholic Social Teaching and Integral human Development. I can assure you that within Caritas Internationalis SCIAF is greatly respected,

And since God works through people he graces us with gifts to use for the benefit of others. I think of teachers and pupils, priests in parishes, our professional and caring staff, the army of volunteers, the Board and our partners abroad.

But what is really impressive is not just what SCIAF does but the way they do it. SCIAF describes itself as a family and I have seen how they treat their partners across the world like sisters and brothers. Everyone they serve is treated with dignity and love.

In the Gospel we heard that Jesus’ word is a call to conversion which leads to a rich harvest and fullness of life. The more we respond to God’s Word, living as authentic disciples, the more the harvest will grow beyond all human expectation. Over the past 60 years SCIAF’s openness to the Gospel makes it different from others and has allowed many rich, profound harvests to be reaped

Congratulations to SCIAF on reaching 60 years. We rejoice in your achievements of the past. We are very aware of the challenges facing the world today but the Gospel is a message of hope and we are pilgrims of hope. I ask that you continually reflect on God’s Word and seek what he is asking of SCIAF today. We need to listen to God’s Word. The more we do the greater will be the harvest…….perhaps even a hundred fold!

Bishop Brian McGee

St Columbkille’s, Rutherglen
Feast of St John Chrysostom
13^th September 2025