Churches to launch poverty campaign
-28/9/04
A global alliance of churches and aid organizations are urging international leaders to fulfill their promise to halve poverty by the year 2015, reports the Idea news agency.
A new campaign, the Micah Challenge, will be launched October 15 at the United Nations in New York. Today, 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty.
The World Evangelical Alliance, representing 400 million Christians in 123 countries, and the Micah Network of more than 260 aid and development organizations, are spearheading the campaign.
It will seek to mobilize millions of Christians to a deeper engagement with the poor and encourage them to influence political leaders to achieve the Millennium development goals.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, will launch the Micah Challenge to an invited audience of 200 guests. He will be joined by representatives from the World Bank and the United Nations Millennium Campaign as well as grassroots leaders from Africa, Asia, America and Europe.
Micah Challenge national campaigns have formed in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Peru and the United Kingdom and are in formation in a further nine countries, including the USA. Major participating agencies include Tearfund (UK), World Vision (UK, Australia, Canada), World Relief, World Concern, CWRC (Canada and USA) Tear (Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland), SEL France and the Baptist World Alliance; along with community development agencies in India, Peru, Zambia and other countries.
The Micah Challenge refers to the Old Testament Prophet Micah, especially a quote from chapter 6, verse 8: ÑHe has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?ì
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