Dear Editor,
I appreciated Bill James’ piece on surrogate parenting and his (en October 2024) support of Miriam Cates’ voice calling for an end to it.
It’s worth emphasising that sometimes fostering and adoption is necessary and that caring for an existing child is such a blessing for them, the new family and the church family. When my wife and I were being assessed as adoptive parents by a local authority, one local councillor said: ‘They seem to be always at church – what do they do for fun?!’ Our fiery RC social worker from West Belfast was able to shoot back: ‘Well, I’ve been to their church and it seemed that the children there were having lots of fun!’.
For all we may yearn for our church to be well-taught, have hearty worship and enthusiastic outreach, let’s make them true families for children who need the stability of a new home with caring adults and children to support them prayerfully in the years ahead. ‘God sets the lonely in families’ (Ps. 68:6).
Yours sincerely,
Paul Whalley, Leicester
