蜜芽传媒

Good morning. There have been times over the last few days when I felt overwhelmed by the tragedy and complexity of the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees. Yet a fair sharing out of the number of refugees who have landed in Europe is only an initial response to a situation which could become far worse.

As Patrick Cockburn notes IS fighters could now capture the crucial road linking Damascus to Aleppo which might double the number of refugees. This crisis is a symptom of a deeper illness - a country unstable because of war, with flattened homes and dominated by fear for the future. Yet trying to treat that illness through air strikes or no fly zones in the midst of local and international politics is complex and agonising.

It's difficult to be optimistic. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees emerged to help Europeans displaced at the end of World War II. It was given three years to complete its work and then disband. Its continued existence illustrates that there are rarely quick fixes. The rebuilding of a shattered Europe was a long term project.

On this day 70 years ago, the allies held the Berlin Victory Parade. However this symbol of triumph took place in a city of rubble and ash, and a country where 70% of housing was destroyed and with millions of people displaced. Perhaps an unlikely source of compassion was Field-Marshal Montgomery, Military Governor of the British zone of occupation. Declining to attend the victory parade, he saw the huge challenge of trying to rebuild a country and save people from starvation, disease and death. He wrote, 'Our present attitude towards the German people is negative, it must be replaced by one that is positive and holds out hope for the future.' It was going to be a long haul with difficult political decisions, the commitment of the Marshall plan and the small but significant help of organisations such as Christian Aid - which was itself founded as a direct response to the situation in Germany.

Today I see glimpses of 'hope for the future' in the shared humanity of refugees being greeted in Munich with sweets, in lawyers donating an hour's pay, and in the government's support for refugee camps in the region. But my long term hope as a Christian is located in an active God who sees every human life as valuable. This doesn't give easy guidance on difficult political decisions but it does mean that compassion has to be both welcoming the stranger and a co-ordinated commitment to building a peaceful future.

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