The Archbishop will be joined by approximately 600 other archbishops and bishops, and their spouses, alongside other UK faith leaders for the high-profile symbol of commitment to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ”“ eight promises made by world leaders to halve world poverty by 2015. Taking place on Thursday 24th July, the event will culminate in a rally in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, the London home and office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The event is being organised in partnership with Micah Challenge UK, part of the international Micah Challenge movement dedicated to uniting Christians to work together for an end to world poverty.
The bishops will walk through the heart of the capital, including Parliament Square, in a vivid demonstration of the diversity of the Anglican Communion and a witness to the work already being conducted by Churches and other faith groups to work towards the MDGs ”“ and a public pledge to work even harder to make sure they are delivered. The faith leaders will also commit to putting more pressure on their respective governments to ensure that funding promises are met, and the right policies put in place, to make a real difference to local communities across the world.
What is the unprecedented part? Bishops walking?
Sorry, couldn’t resist. I do think Christians should give to alleviate global poverty. I encourage giving to the ARDF. It is a good thing this walk is in Westminster and not downtown New York, of course, since some wag might then point out that they were walking on their own property, let at exorbitant rents to banks and brokerages, and perhaps should give a little bit of their own. Or back to the Indians they stole it from.
The MDGs are certainly noble objectives.
The problem is that the history of developmental and humanitarian assistance in Africa over the last 30-40 years is not encouraging. The mechanisms for delivery of this assistance have just not led to the kind of conflict resolution that we should expect. Impact-based evaluation of these programs is almost non-extent which leads to good money chasing bad.
Until the UN becomes willing to try more participatory means of planning and implementation of developmental and humanitarian assistance and to work increase governmental capacities to deliver services I am not hopeful of its ultimate success and sustainability.
Before the UN and others embark on a an ambitious capital campaign to eradicate poverty it ought to first assess and change their own implementation and evaluation shortcomings. Otherwise we will never know if any real progress is being made.
At the moment “hitching your wagon” to the MDGs are no substitute for delivery to the point of service mission work where progress can be measured through direct contact with the recipients.
I’m waiting for this headline:
“[b]U.N. Secretary General Unveils Plan for
Event to challenge Christian Churches to
Preach the Gospel.[/b]”
With the price of food rising we seem to be going backwards. The poor are the first to be priced out of the market.
I’d suggest that they encourage food production but the global warming crowd would jump on them.
So, they make a “high-profile [b]symbol[/b] of commitment”. They will all go home and eat well and feel quite good about themselves.
Don
The goals are lovely, worthy, noble. The medium chosen to pursue them, the United Nations, is a corrupt, ineffective organization. You’d be more likely to achieve the MDGs by giving the money to the Rotary or Boy Scouts.
Good! It is time to refocus the Communion on the work of the Gospel. Jesus said “If you love me, feed my sheep.” If we are skeptical (rightly so probably) about the means, then let us do what we can where we know we can help–our own city neighborhoods perhaps. I applaud the archbishop for changing the priorities.
dmitri,
The Church has never STOPPED doing the work of the Gospel. The only reason it’s news now is that the church is now seeking PUBLICITY and public ‘slaps on the back’ for doing the work of the Gospel — absent the ‘make disciples of all nations’ part, it seems.
If the ‘gospel’ being carried is not the true Gospel that points to Jesus Christ, to the Cross and the power of Jesus Christ over sin and not to pluralism, cheap grace…that is well and good…but most of the Anglican bishops who will be at Lambeth carry the small letter gospel and I wouldn’t want them in my neighborhood, home or with my children presenting their false gospel. They are unrepentant, dangerous men and women, trying to distract attention from the real issues (as did Bill and Hillary with their photo op in the soup kitchen during the Lewinsky investigation).
Concern for the poor does not substitute for Scriptural Christianity, repentance of sin, heresy and apostasy, even for bishops in a church organization.
Oh, amen squared, Library Jim Larry
The ABC does seem to be taking all his cues from 815.
At DeS, Rowan Williams alloted 4 HOURS to address the “American question.” Now at Lambeth, we have 0 HOURS being allotted to the issues that are tearing the erstwhile communion asunder. Rather we will hold hands and do some marching.
I forget the TEO’s exact objective with respect to the MDG’s, something like 0.7% of monies to go to ADVOCATING for the poor (into the hands of Washington lobbyists, most likely). At the same time they cut funding to missionaries (and the TEO already had the highest laity to missionary ratio, 40,000 lay people to one missionary, I believe).
Excuse my cynicism if I can’t see this for anything but a sorry attempt to change the subject to symbolic gesturing.
I didn’t believe it until now. I didn’t want to believe it. But with the announcement of a ‘resolution-less’ conference and now this dedication to the MDGs it is hard avoid the conclusion that +Williams is entirely in the PB’s pocket. I keep trying to give +Cantuar the benefit of the doubt. But this is starting to sound pointless and absurd. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll go back to being optimistic. Does anyone really care what Anglican bishops march for anymore? This is like convening an international summit in 1939 to discuss the effect of the depression on the price of Dutch cheese. We all love gouda and the Dutch are really nice people, but the world is about to explode!
An utter and complete waste of time. And meanwhile, the Anglican Communion disintegrates.