Is Humanity Killing Itself?

That was the provocative title of a dialogue we attended on 30 September at St. Paul's Cathedral. This fall the Archbishop of Canterbury initiated a series of 4 dialogues on 4 subjects of concern over a period of several weeks. We were only able to attend the last, on the subject above. We went as a group with about 15 others from our church.

As an aside, St. Paul's is part way through a major internal cleaning and renovation and the completed parts are stunningly beautiful. Also, we both found ourselves really liking the Archbishop, who seemed (in addition to being very bright and very spiritual) a very down-to-earth and likable "bloke".

The speakers, in addition to the Archbiship (Dr.Rowan Willians), were Dr. Ian Smith (MD) of the World Health Organization, and Mr. Peter Bains, a Senior Vice President of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The whole was moderated by Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss, president of the Family Division of the Old Bailey -- the UK's most senior woman judge. The dialog covered the effect of epidemic disease in many parts of the world, explored what the developed nations can and cannot do about it, the role of pharmaceutical companies and other medical entities, and so on. Frankly, we were pleased at what an intelligent, well-balanced discussion it was.

At the end of the 2-hour period each of the panel members was given a chance to wrap up his views. Dr. Smith reminded us there was much we could all do to improve world health and that many of us, including himself, could probably contribute by losing some weight. Our church group then adjourned to a nearby pizza restaurant.

We hasten to add that most of us ordered various kinds of salads.