Executive Board
of the ICPCC

End of October 2009

Dear Friends, Greetings.

Hope you had a fruitful year and have started another academic year!

While being on the positive note I am also the bearer of sad and shocking news of the death of Jim Biddle to cancer this June.

Jim Biddle was elected in Poland 2007 at the ICPCC Congress to be the convener of the next congress in New Zealand. His death came as a shock to many and some of us took time to recover from the shock.

This was my letter to the executive members when I got the news:
"I just was woken up from sleep at 4.15 a.m. by Helen and she told me that Jim passed away on June 13th and yesterday was the funeral. It came as a shock to me. He had cancer of the stomach and it was too late when he went to the hospital to have any treatment. He held strong and was very courageous and went very peacefully. He has left behind three children two sons and a daughter and six grandchildren. I was told that they had expected him to go three weeks back as he was so ill but he pulled on courageously but finally he had to go. He is spared of pain.
But we will miss him...I really miss him so much.... His funeral was well attended and they had taken him to all the places where he served and finally buried him. Tomorrow his wife will go with some people to Jim's office and have the final closure, which is very important to Jim and to his community."

Jim was a young enthusiastic, energetic visionary dreaming many a dreams, one such dream was to have us all in his home land to have a Maori experience. His heart was in promoting and preserving the traditional Maori rich heritage and the integration of Christianity to outsiders. He was a transparent, forthright and uncompromising peron. His diplomacy and charm coupled with humor made his presence enjoyable. He was a caring person sensitive to other's pain and needs. He had excellent communication skills. He was surely missed in the last executive meeting.

The ICPCC executive meeting prior to the European congress had a time of sharing and silence where each one separately and corporately thanked God for Jim's life and said our goodbye's, which was painful but we had to let go Jim in order to go forward.

This news of loss is a reminder to us of the vulnerability and limitation of life and yet we see enormous human greed resulting in conquering markets, resources, lives, waters, lands and reducing people to absolute poverty eliminating the unskilled and fragile ones in the name of progress and development. More and More the challenge for us is to be involved in issues of justice and peace.

May God help to touch lives so that they will find abundant life!

Shaloam and Best wishes

Nalini Arles
ICPCC President