Archbishop urges appeals support

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The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged people to support emergency appeals and not become bored by them in his annual New Year message.

Dr Rowan Williams said people can benefit from helping others because it fills a "void" within us.

He also drew a contrast between people in the UK who may have over-eaten this Christmas to those starving in Sudan.

In his message Dr Williams acknowledged 2007 marked 200 years since the slave trade was ended.

Speaking from a church in Clapham, south London, Dr Williams said: "We all respond as best we can to one emergency appeal after another.

"And we feel just a bit guilty as we acknowledge that we're almost bored by yet another appeal - yet another set of pictures of suffering children in need."

'Yearning'

Dr Williams compared towns across the UK, where many have "eaten more than we should", to a part of Sudan where people are reliant on the church for handouts every day.

In the speech broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday, the archbishop said helping others had personal benefits.

"When we look at the familiar images of other people's suffering, do we feel a void inside ourselves, a yearning for something different and a conviction that it needn't be like this?" he said.

"That's where change begins. And it's one of the differences that faith can make; faith in God and in people."

Dr Williams said the slave trade had been brought to an end because of people's "hunger for justice".

The New Year message is also being shown on Monday on BBC One at 1245 GMT.