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It’s one of the iconic images printed on my consciousness and of many others, even though it happened seventeen years ago today.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Diana, Princess of Wales in flak jacket and visor, red-cross badge on her white blouse, walking through a cleared minefield in Angola, before meeting victims mutilated by its bombs and famously calling for an international ban on landmines.  The jury was out as to whether she involving herself in issues she shouldn’t or rightly drawing attention to a humanitarian tragedy.

Shortly after Diana’s sudden and sad death in August that year, the then relatively new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, promised to honour her death by ratifying the international Ottawa convention on banning landmines. He did so, and it came into force in 1999.

Today, nearly fifteen years later, we continue to wait for some countries to sign the treaty.

It’s easy to be cynical about how long seemingly good proposals take to unfold. Take Mandela’s long walk to freedom, and the lengthy complexity of the abolition of slavery, for example.

Which is why a key theme of the Christian scriptures is about persisting in doing good and continuing to strive for what is right. I like one rendition of Romans Chapter 2 verse 7: ‘To those who in the patience of good works are seeking glory, honour and indestructibility, he gives eternal life.’

Prayer:

God of all, awaken in every heart reverence for what is good and resolve to pursue it. And renew among us all a readiness to guard, nurture and sustain your precious gift of life. This we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.