From ACNS-
In the wake of yet more big jolts in Christchurch, Bishop Victoria Matthews says she fears her clergy are facing “exhaustion of spirit”.
“People are tired. They have been more than magnificent. Let me say that clearly.
“But I am hearing of a deep weariness of the soul, and I'm having to ask people to reach deep into their resources to meet yet another crisis.
“The churches that have stepped up to the plate, and been magnificent so many times before, will have to do it all over again. Because we have got to keep looking after the people of God.
“I'm watching people's eyes, and hearing their words very carefully, and I've been saying to some: ‘You know, you've got to get out and away for a month.’
“And they say: ‘Yes. You're right. I do.’ But after yesterday, getting them to do that is going to be more difficult. Because they are going to want to be with their people.
“That's the story that is front page for me.
“I was talking to an elderly man the other day who’d lived through war, and been evacuated six times in his life. He knows the drills, so to speak.
“But the people who are actually at the front line now… we don't.
“We are a generation who have never been through a war, never lived through a sustained, critical period like this. That makes it really difficult.”
As a young woman, Bishop Victoria twice served three-month stints in Haiti – and while she was there, she lived through a military coup.
More here-
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/6/15/ACNS4879
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