Wilberforce, National Treasures and revival

We went to see the film Amazing Grace last night. I admit it, I cried at the end. Now that is something of an admission because whilst the rest of my family cry at Bambi, I am known as never crying in films. Acutally it wasn't the film that brought the tears but the statement by one of the characters, "The slave trade has now ended." It was all I could do, not to stand up and shout, "If only that were true."

Anyway it's a great film.

This morning the radio was turned to Radio 2 and Sarah Kennedy was going on about some latest newspaper survey about British National treasures. She was joking about why Wogan wasn't on the list. The list includes, Elton John, Judi Dench and Richard Hammond. These are the characters that apparently the British people see as contributing to the national good and for whom we have great affection. They may be very nice people but national treasures?
Where are the Wilberforce's, the Shaftsbury's, the Booths of our day? Well I suppose we have Bono..........

And revival. Well perhaps that's it. We need a revival to raise up people in our nation who will change society.
Pete Grieg, in Awakening Cry, which I am reading at the moment sees "revival as an extraordinary work of a sovereign God that revitalises the church and transforms society."

His other definition of it is:
"Revival is a process that restores the church to her normative state: as the agent of Christ on earth. It is initiated by God, in reponse to prayerful prepartation, and it is marked by an extraordinary awareness of God in the community at large, particularly among the poor."


God bless

Carol