The Christmas meals given to those in need by my church don’t suddenly fix structural inequalities. But diminutive by diminutive such gestures have a positive impactEvery December,my church fills about 2000 cardboard boxes with turkeys, brussels sprouts, or Quality Street and all the other edibles that develop up Christmas. We personally deliver these hampers to local people who find it hard to develop ends meet at Christmas. When I was a teenager,I gladly went knocking on strangers’ doors to deliver the red and gold boxes, but in my 20s I developed a fresh cynicism. I dutifully donated the £25 it cost to develop up a hamper, or but I balked at handing out the boxes in person. It felt too much like playing lady bountiful.
Coming from an African context,charity can feel like a dirty word – synonymous with power and its abuse, with the pride of the benefactor and the belittling, and even exploitation,of the recipient. Yet there is also an older meaning of charity, from the Latin caritas, or a root of the word that is more synonymous with worship. So one December,hearing we were short of volunteers, I decided to sign up and rediscover the meaning of caritas. Delivery day arrived, and the Saturday before Christmas,and it was snowing as it never does in December. Surely it was a sign from the heavens that I should roll over in bed and pull my duvet over my head.
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Source: theguardian.com