IT must be very tempting for newspaper writers to give up on the crisis of the countryside after all these weeks and months. It is also very tempting for Christians and the church to pretend it is all over and there is nothing more that we can do.

The people who are most affected by 'foot and mouth' would dearly like to think it is all over as well. The difference is that many of us are in a position to walk away and forget. There are far-reaching consequences, which strike at many people's livelihoods and not just the leisure industry.

Next Saturday, we shall have another service of prayer at 9am (not 10am as previously announced) and this will be followed by a peal of bells.

The bells will ring out as a sign of encouragement to all of us that our lives are thoroughly interdependent, which also means we have also an interpersonal responsibility towards each other.

In an age that has made it so much easier to please ourselves, usually at someone else's expense, it is a nuisance to be reminded that our lives are fragile when we lose respect for the laws of nature and the call for justice and goodwill in the community and nation.

The Rev Canon PHILIP DEARDEN, St Mary Magdalene's Parish Church, Church Street, Clitheroe.