Fulwood Methodist Church helps to MakePovertyHistory
They say that some 225,000 people travelled to Edinburgh on 2 July. Well, 90 of them went thanks to the support of Fulwood Methodist Church!
Earlier
in the year, the Church Meeting had heard of the MakePovertyHistory rally which
was to be held on that day and had said that it wanted to be part of the many
thousands who would make their views known. Some church members told us
how they had taken part a few years earlier at a rally in Birmingham and that
from that had grown this mass movement of concern to address global poverty.
This was a great chance to ensure that the world leaders meeting nearby at
Gleneagles in the next few days saw the strength of our feeling.
Nationally, the Methodist Church had been one of the several organisations that had helped to arrange the events so it was fitting that we should take part. But taking part meant not only going ourselves but also enabling others who wanted to come with us to do so. Shortly after I registered our transport on the website I was contacted by a man in Devon who decided to come halfway on the journey to Edinburgh by train and the rest of the way by coach with us. There were many others who travelled with us in this way. Forty or so were from Fulwood or other Preston Methodist Churches and twenty-five or so from other Christian churches in Preston or nearby. What was really good was the number of young people who found it from somewhere to get up for a 6.30a.m. Start!
There are a thousand memories of the day itself. The transport and parking arrangements worked perfectly for us with our coaches staying right by The Meadows, the main venue for the gathering. The weather (in spite of rain on the way and a not-too promising forecast) was perfect and on route the service areas were thronged with people dressed in white for we were all meant to wear that colour. I suppose it made a change from the football shirts that they normally see and we were better behaved I think.
Although we set off early and were well to the
front of the arrivals there 
were tens of thousands there before us. On The
Meadows were exhibitions, food stalls and entertainment but Peter Sheasby was
adamant (and how right he was) that those who wished to join the walk should
get into the queue straight away. This involved waiting patiently to join the
procession and it was perhaps 30 minutes before our turn came. How fortunate
we
were for we heard afterwards of those who waited two hours or more and some who
never actually joined the walk for pressure of numbers and time.
But it was all wonderfully well organised
and a tremendous thrill to walk through Edinburgh essentially forming a
continuous ring of white around the Castle for some two miles or so. Never I
guess has Edinburgh seen anything like it but for me the real thrill was to see
a huge MPH banner, the size of a football pitch, covering the whole of one side
of the Castle as it faces Princes Street.
Was it all worth it? Well history will tell a complicated story. Late in the day of course Live 8 came onto the scene and perhaps detracted a little from the impact of the event, certainly in the national media. And of course within a few days, the dreadful events in London took attention away from the G8 summit. But we know the politicians listened and our own Government in particular have been so active in debt cancellation. On that Saturday evening, as we returned tired but enervated, Gordon Brown was talking to church leaders, including those of the Methodist Church and listening to what they had to say. The statements which emerged later from the world leaders at Gleneagles were encouraging. And we had helped to MakePovertyHistory.
