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The Millennium Development Goals What Are the Millennium Development
Goals? The
MDGs are an eight-pronged declaration that has at its core the eradication of
extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015. In
what has become a major mission and evangelism emphasis of this General
Convention, the MDG resolution (D022): ·
Establishes achieving the MDGs as a stated mission priority of the Episcopal
Church for the next three years; ·
Urges each diocese, congregation and parishioner to give 0.7 percent toward
the MDGs by July 7, 2007; i.e. by 07/07/07; ·
Designates the Last Sunday after Pentecost as a special day of prayer,
fasting and giving in the Episcopal Church toward global reconciliation and
the Millennium Development Goals; ·
Calls on every diocese to establish a global reconciliation commission to
mobilize Episcopalians to work for achieving the goals of the MDGs; ·
Endorses the "ONE Episcopalian" campaign that calls on the U.S.
government to spend an additional 1 percent of its budget to combat global
poverty; and ·
Asks the budget committee of the Episcopal Church to consider a line item
equal to 0.7 percent (or roughly $900,000) in the coming three-year budget
for work that supports the MDGs. "For I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was
sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me [...] Truly
I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members
of my family, you did it to me." - Matthew 25:35-36, 40b "Extreme
poverty means that households cannot meet basic needs for survival. They are
chronically hungry, unable to access health care, lack the amenities of safe
drinking water and sanitation, cannot afford education for some or all of the
children, and perhaps lack rudimentary shelter -- a roof to keep the rain out
of the hut, a chimney to remove the smoke from the cook stove -- and basic
articles of clothing, such as shoes." - Jeffrey D. Sachs. The End of
Poverty (The Penguin Press, 2005), p. 20. To learn about the Fast Facts of Poverty
We
can do nothing less as our Baptisms call us into a covenant relationship with
God and all of creation. This covenant establishes the moral obligation to
follow Jesus' command to care for the poor and oppressed (Matthew 25:31-46). The
Commitment Presiding
Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori is making the Millennium Development Goals
the centerpiece of the church's commitment to shalom. As she said in her
investiture sermon: "This
church has said that our larger vision will be framed and shaped in the
coming years by the vision of shalom embedded in the Millennium Development
Goals - a world where the hungry are fed, the ill are healed, the young educated,
women and men treated equally, and where all have access to clean water and
adequate sanitation, basic health care, and the promise of development that
does not endanger the rest of creation. That vision of abundant life is
achievable in our own day, but only with the passionate commitment of each
and every one of us. It is God's vision of homecoming for all humanity." Read
the whole sermon, here.
LEARN MORE and GET INVOLVED We
have our website linked to the website of Episcopalians for Global Reconiliation . Many of the
links on this page will take you to their site for further information. We
invite you to browse their site for futher information and links. What Do We Do? An
excellent book, What Can One Person Do? Faith to Heal a Broken World, by
Sabina Alkire, Edmund Newell, Ann Barham, Chloe Breyer, and Ian Douglas
provides a strategy that allows each person to connect with, learn about and
take action - to strive for justice and peace. The strategy includes: Pray
Hold people and situations in
prayer. Learn more here: Prayers for MDGs |