/eaton/images/image-ID-8fef0f9f-4998-4441-ed1c-9f52a2c1355f.png)
On Tuesday 18th November, my wife (Mandy) and I attended an abortion related prayer meeting organized by Brephos (more on their name later). The evening left me with three nagging thoughts.
1. Where are the Churches?
The event, held at City Gates Centre on Cowgate, was attended by representatives of just a handful of the many Churches in and around the Fine City of Norwich. Given the magnitude of the subject, I was left wondering where the other Churches were.
At the meeting were told that since the legalization of abortion in 1967, ten million babies have been legally “terminated” in the UK. At present one in three of all pregnancies ends in abortion – that figure rises to one in two for Generation Z (people aged from young teen to thirty). It was pointed out that a baby in the womb is more likely to be killed than a front-line soldier was during World-War 1.
Why should we care; after all, the world tells us that a baby is not a real person until they are born (they are simply an embryo or a foetus and part of the mother’s body)?
The word “Brephos” points to why we should care. Brephos (βρέφος or the plural βρέφη) is the Greek word used in the Bible to describe babies, from conception to toddler. For example;
We should care about abortion because the Bible makes no discrimination between a baby in the womb and a baby post birth. And in this country 10,000,000 “βρέφη” have been legally killed.
Commenting on Pharo’s edict that Hebrew babies should be killed at birth, Acts 7:19 says:
Such an act was despicable to God then and must be equally so now.
This is why the Church should care: This is why the Church should be gathering in their thousands to pray, to demonstrate and to plead with our Government to change the law.
Just as I thought things could not get any worse, we were informed at the meeting that the current Crime and Policing Bill contains an amendment decriminalizing women who choose to abort their babies in any manor even up to birth. How would the God who spoke Acts 17 respond to this? How should we respond?
So, my first thought at this meeting was "Where are the Churches?"
On our way to the prayer meeting we collected an international student who has only been in the country a few weeks. She asked us about abortion laws in this land and about the alternatives on offer to women who are pregnant.
What do we offer to women and girls who are pregnant through rape or incest?
What help do we offer to women in severe financial or material hardship?
It made me think; what are we doing? The Open Door Christian Fellowship is a very small group of Christians with extremely limited resources, but if we are serious in our condemnation of abortion, what help are we willing to give local women and girls to help them make the right decision and go through with their birth?
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem
There is an old adage that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. In the RAF we used to tell people “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions”. In my first role as a Sergeant, I went to the Flight Commander with an issue, he looked across the table and simply said, “so what are you going to do about it”. It was a wake-up call; and this student’s words asking what the Church can offer was a similar moment. I (we) need to be part of the solution otherwise we are part of the problem.
Right now I don’t know the answer to this question, but we need to pray, seek guidance and offer pregnant women and girls a genuine alternative to abortion.
So, the second thought is also a question for me and the wider Church - what are we doing?
Despite the enormity of the problem and the seemingly unstoppable tide of public opinion, there is hope. In that small meeting of a few Christians, I heard the most powerful and heartfelt prayers that I have encountered in a long time.
While there a few who are prepared to stand up for what it right and beseech the LORD to act, there is hope for future generations.
The Christian Church began with a handful of people gathered in an upper room. When the Holy Spirit came on them, they preached the Word of God and thousands were added to their number. God can do amazing things through a small number of people.
In recent years there have been reports of a “quiet revival” in our communities – particularly among the very generation that is killing 50% of unborn children. If God is calling this generation to repentance and faith, there is hope for a great revival and change of social attitudes.
Stuart Bailey
Pastor