大象传媒

Good Morning<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

A few years ago, I was at meetings in South Africa, and took the opportunity to go on a tour through a Gold Mine in Johannesburg. This was partly personal, as a childhood friend of mine had gone to South Africa to make his career in Gold Mining, and died there in his early adult years. As a tourist, of course, I was not exposed to the dangers and the harsh conditions, but I wanted to pay my respects to my friend.

I hold no romantic ideas about mining. I grew up in West Yorkshire and later in the Midlands, surrounded in those days by pitheads and slag heaps, and stories of tragedy. Mining has always been a dangerous occupation. Accidents happen a long way from safety, and dangers such as fire or flood develop unexpectedly and travel fast.

Additionally, it is often those who have the least opportunity or choice in life that end up working in so difficult and hazardous an environment, with the consequence that safety measures are sometimes neglected.

On this day, as recently as 1986, fire and toxic fumes swept through the Gold Mine at Kinross in the Eastern Transvaal, killing more than 170 men, mostly black, unskilled labourers, working at depths of up to 12,000 feet, in one of the worst disasters in mining history.

God of the deep places of the earth, we hold before you the memory of all those who have died in work-related disasters. We pray for people who will go to work in hazardous occupations today, and for all who have the health and safety of others in their care.

Amen