Williams to wall street

As one who lives on Wall Street, I found it surprising to read in the Times Online that Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, had visited there at Trinity Church this week. Of course, Williams was in New York, not LA (Lilesville Area). Rowan delivered timely remarks and criticism during his lesson that targeted the financial greed of our society.

Standing at the lectern of the famously wealthy US Episcopal church, which lies at the head of Wall Street, the leader of the Anglican Communion noted, “Do we live in a broken society? Well, in many ways we live in society where far too many people live deeply fragmented lives even if they’re materially well-off. We live in a world that’s broken in the sense that a very large part of our world, notably Africa, feels, with a good deal of justification, that the rest of the world has more or less stopped thinking about it. In a sense that is brokenness, where one sector of the human family says, we don’t believe that the rest of you have any investment in what happens to us. That’s real brokenness.” He went on to say that society was founded on love, and there would be no sustainable model until this was recognised.

There is real truth in his comments at Trinity. Unfortunately, like most warnings and calls for true repentance, the echoes of prophets fall on deaf ears. The Times reported, "but there were no bankers or traders listening in Trinity Wall Street and, even if there had been, it is unlikely that they would have recognised the old man from Britain with the shock of white hair." As someone preached from the pulpit this morning, "If we give every corner of our life over to Christ, except our finances then we will fail." Awaken us Lord to give every corner of our life to you.