Good Friday and Earth Day

I urge you to look at the Stations of the Cross, one by one, at Episcopal Relief and Development,
which highlight the Millenium Development Goals.

Although I cannot copy the images, this is what is written about the first MDG station of the cross:

1--Condemned

50,000 people are sentence to die each day
because of extreme poverty.

Lord, help us to find the way of the cross to be
the way of life and justice and peace.

Holy God
Holy and Mighty
Holy Immortal One
Have mercy upon us

Also, there is Stations of the Cross from Latin American 1492-1992 by Adolpho Perez Esquivel of Argentina (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1980), which highlights Liberation Theology.


Profoundly disturbing and moving images at both sites, which highlight the suffering and injustice in the world--as we contemplate both Good Friday and Earth Day today.

Hungersite donations

30.1 million cups of food were donated in the first six months of 2009 by individuals clicking on that site every day.

I remember because I signed up on that site to be reminded. Every day I receive an email with a link, which causes me to click. It only takes seconds, and it actually helps.

The EGR Rule of Life

Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation is committed to:

- direct the Church's attention to alleviating the extreme poverty of the world. (Matthew 25:31-46);

- make explicit the Christ-centeredness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), believing that for Christians today following Jesus involves commitment to the MDGs, and commitment to the MDGs involves commitment to Jesus (John 10:10);

- turn life around (conversion) at the individual, congregational, diocesan, national, and global level for the sake of the poor and suffering of the world. (Luke 18:18-23).

EGR invites individuals, congregations, dioceses, and other institutions of The Episcopal Church to enter into this Rule of Life as a way of living out these commitments.

The Rule is as simple as it is radical in that it reflects the heart of the Gospel and calls for a comprehensive personal and institutional response.

Click here to commit yourself, your congregation or your institution to the Rule.

The individual, congregation, diocese or other institution of the Episcopal Church pledges to:

Pray: Regularly hold before God the Millennium Development Goals and pray with an unrelenting intention for the poor.

Study: Undertake regular education on issues and faithful responses related to global poverty.

Give: Make sacrificial and regular financial contributions to help achieve the MDGs, including annual support to Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation to build the movement.

Act: Direct one’s life and activities by agreeing to:

*Connect:Seek to engage in real and tangible ways with the impoverished and others committed to the achievement of the MDGs;

*Witness: Speak, write, create, and make life choices that advance God’s mission of global reconciliation through the MDGs;

*Advocate: Bring before secular and church bodies your personal and institutional commitment to meet the MDGs.

EGR

"Shake the gates of hell!"

Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society gave a commencement speech at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX on May 10 where he urged the graduates to "shake the gates of hell. Because if you don't, things will only go from bad to worse."

He ended his speech with:

"President Bush was right when he said there is an axis of evil, but he was wrong when he said it is Iran, Iraq and North Korea. It has been said the true axis of evil is pandemic poverty, environmental degradation and a world awash in weapons. This triplet has caused enormous suffering and pain.

"The nations of the world have united behind eight Millennium Development Goals intended to make poverty history. They are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability, and
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

"These goals comprise the best anti-terrorism campaign around. We can’t build enough guns, tanks and war planes to stop the anger and frustration that leads to terrorism. I do know, though that we now have the capacity to re-shape the world so that a good and decent life is enjoyed by all of God’s children.

"Can we imagine a new future? We must."

Go here to read the rest of the speech, which was published in this week's "Faith In Action" e-newsletter.

If you would like to subscribe to the weekly UM Church and Society "Faith in Action" newsletter, you may sign up here.

Pray Every Day!

The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will

We ask that every house of worship in every country pledge to say this prayer aloud at every worship service - until the millennium goals are met.

"The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will"

Countingprayers.org will count each prayer, and update the totals on the world wide web daily. Evidence that you are not alone, and that a manifested will is building that will not be denied.

Q. How many prayers will it take until the Millennium Goals are Met?

A. Let's get started and find out.

Q. How long will it take until the first million prayers are tallied?

A. It would take 200 congregations about ten weeks.

Q. How long until the number of prayers exceed the population of your country?

A. Surprisingly fast.

Q. How long will it take until a billion prayers are offered?

A. It would take about 50,000 congregations less than a year.

Q. What might our elected officials think when they witness our will manifest?

A. That there is nothing that concerns their base more than bearing witness to the end of extreme poverty.

Q. Is keeping the millennium promise a political issue?

A. No. It's a moral issue.

Not only houses of worship can be counted, any individual may, also, make a prayer pledge.

Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation

The MDGs are nothing new. Our scriptural story is full of accounts of God's people doing these things and of God calling us to do them, too. Check out "The MDGs - Straight from Scripture" for plenty of examples. Also, EGR diocesan contact Eleanor Braun (Virginia) has put together this extensive list of scripture passages with peace and justice themes.

Micah Challenge Prayers for MDG's

This is from the Micah Challenge, a global Christian campaign to achieve the MDGs. Part of their mission is a weekly prayer emailing like the one you see below. You can receive it in your email box every week if you send a blank email to regine.nagel@micahchallenge.org with the words 'subscribe prayer' in the subject line.

Micah Challenge International

Micah Challenge USA

"If it was not for the women, you wouldn’t have a church."

This bold statement is made by Nyambura J Njoroge in the Africa Bible Commentary on the role of women in the church.

‘There can be no denying that women and men are created equal in the image of God. Thus we must not focus on the gender roles that society, church and African cultures have assigned to women. The focus should fall on the biblical call for all human beings to discern what is the will of God in their lives.’

Please reflect on Romans 12:1-8 where the apostle Paul urges both brothers and sisters to be available to God as an act of worship.

‘Women have a critical and prophetic role to play in ‘stirring the waters’ and ‘speaking the truth’ by asserting their God-given humanity and gifts – not for their own sake but for the sake of the integrity of the gospel.’

Prayer

Let us pray:

* Nyambura J Njoroge says: ‘Women still face a daunting task in advocating and modelling gender justice in the church and in society.’ - Please pray for sensitivity and wisdom as women and men around the world boldly work towards achieving this task.

* Reflecting on the statistic below: we praise God for a closing of the gender gap in health and education. We pray that political and economic leaders will increase their efforts to decrease the gender gap in women’s economic participation and political empowerment.

* Micah Challenge coordinator in Bolivia, Roxana Villarroel, asks for prayer for the large number of poor families affected by climate change in the country. She writes:

We are expecting another year with bad news due to the Niña Phenomenon (a climatic phenomenon which causes the waters of the pacific ocean to become unusually cold and as a result produces storms; in recent decades this has been the cause of major climatic disasters) and thousands of families will be affected. A recently released government report has registered 13,883 families whose houses were damaged and at least 18 people have died.

This news must call us to reflect and to mobilize as, as so often, the affected people are those with little opportunity to protect themselves. As people of God we must learn to practice justice. Let us be sure that the church is there to act with love and compassion.

Please pray for our campaign plans this year and the challenges that we face. May God in his mercy help us to be faithful in the ministry.

* Micah Challenge Haiti is organizing a seminar on Integral Mission for all theological seminaries and bible schools in the country.

o Please pray that the participants will be enthusiastic to learn and be motivated to apply what they have learnt in the curricula of their colleges.

o Dr Elaine Storkey as she teaches the main sessions. Please pray for clarity and wisdom so that her teaching can be easily applied in the Haitian context.

Meditate on the Statistics

As you spend time in prayer and reflection, you may like to take a moment to silently understand with your heart the focus statistic we include each week (see below). Our hope is that you will find this series of statistics a useful resource in preparing presentations.

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Indicator 10: Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old
Indicator 11: Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Indicator 12: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

The global overview of the Gender gap ‘shows that the 128 countries covered, representing over 90% of the world’s population, are close to eliminating the gap between women and men’s health and education outcomes: almost 92% of the educational outcomes gap and 96% of the health outcomes gap has been closed. However the gap between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 58% of the economic outcomes gap and only 14% of the political outcomes gap has been closed.’

Source: The Global Gender Gap Report 2007, World Economic Forum 2007

The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 is based on a new methodology and includes detailed profiles that provide insight into the economic, legal and social aspects of the gender gap in each country. The Report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women:

1) Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2) Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
3) Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
4) Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

Yours in Christ,
Regine and MC team

Please view all the Friday Prayer statistics we’ve used to date at Index of Millennium Development Goal Statistics.xls

Please see Index of Reflections on Integral Mission.xls