Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe would have returned to his country from the EU-Africa Summit in Portugal well fed and well pleased with himself for having yet again cocked a snook at the international community. Mugabe ended the private discussions with his usual tirade about how any criticism of him by Europeans is nothing more than a throwback to colonialism. What nonsense.

The living conditions in Zimbabwe beggar belief. The shops are empty. For those few that have food, buying a loaf of bread requires a carrier bag full of banknotes.

Such is the economic chaos in Zimbabwe that one individual was recently told by a pension company that it would no longer send him statements as his fund was worth less than the price of a stamp. The country once known as the "bread basket of Africa" has become Southern Africa's basket case economy with a tyrant at its head. These conditions are not the fruit of colonialism; they are the consequences of Mugabe's regime.

The people of Zimbabwe are being robbed of their dignity, their rights and their identity. Protesters are beaten, phone calls bugged, e-mails censored. All the apparatus of a totalitarian regime is being brought to bear on a people who are being betrayed by those African leaders who refuse to condemn Mugabe.

As a clergyman, I am identified by wearing a dog collar. On Sunday, I cut up my dog collar during a television interview and will not wear it again until Mugabe has gone. The people of Zimbabwe have lost their identity. Until democracy and good governance return, the spiral of poverty, brutality and economic chaos will continue.

At a political level, change will come when the United Nations makes Zimbabwe a priority. Those European governments who sat down with Mugabe must now bring his appalling treatment of his countrymen and women to the UN and provide the moral and legal framework for a response that ousts Mugabe and frees the people of Zimbabwe. Our Government needs to hear our voices raised as one to take action and put pressure on the UN.

On a personal level, each of us has an opportunity to help. The British charities like Christian Aid, Tearfund and CAFOD working in Zimbabwe alongside churches, youth groups and mothers to feed the starving
and heal the sick are in desperate need.

If we each gave just £1, we could begin to alleviate the worst of the suffering at the most basic level while calling on our leaders to bring about representative democracy at the highest level.

So as you get ready to do your Christmas food shopping this year, spare a pound, from your trolley or from your pocket, and ask the supermarkets and shops to match your donation. Ask them to give something of your spending to those who cannot even buy bread.

Without our help the starving, malnourished and sick children of Zimbabwe might not get to see another Christmas. By using our voices to call for change and our money to secure the future of its population, we can each of us bring Christmas hope to those people living under tyranny.

Dr John Sentamu is the Archbishop of York.