Church-backed TV show urges Americans to fight global hunger

-16/08/06

A powerful new


Church-backed TV show urges Americans to fight global hunger

-16/08/06

A powerful new TV documentary, presented by the National Council of Churches USA and produced by Mennonite Media, is aiming to encourage Americans to take an unflinching look at the persistent problem of hunger in the 21st century.

ëHunger No More: Faces Behind the Factsí also focuses on a range of solutions to the problem of global poverty. It will be available to NBC television network affiliates from 10 September 2006.

Most of those who watch the programme will have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. But for millions of people in the US, the worldís richest country, and for nearly a billion people worldwide, food insecurity is a daily reality.

The documentary specifically approaches hunger from the perspective of faith, declaring that hunger is more than a social issue ñ it is one which goes to the core of our belief systems.

“[This] is a moral issue that needs immediate resolution,” says Burton Buller, president of Mennonite Media, who produced the programme in collaboration with the NCC.

“The programme brings to life the moral dimension of this thorny issue, and offers up a vision for a new day when hunger is eradicated from the face of the earth,” explains Mr Buller.

The one-hour, closed-captioned special, presented by the NCCUSA in partnership with the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, will be telecast by NBC affiliates nationwide, beginning on Sunday, 10 September. Interested viewers are encouraged to call their NBC station and ask when the programme will be broadcast locally.

A study guide for ëHunger No More: Faces Behind the Factsí, and more information is available online at http://councilofchurches.org/hunger/.

NCC General Secretary the Rev Dr Bob Edgar said the TV special is being produced as part of the NCCUSA’s commitment “to address significant issues of faith and public policy and to pursue concrete solutions to the persistent challenge of poverty in a time of great wealth and capability in our society.”

Other participants in the documentary include Dr Jeffrey Sachs from the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Church World Service Executive Director the Rev John McCullough, Senator Elizabeth Dole from North Carolina, and former Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern from South Dakota.

In addition to Mennonite Media, the NCCUSA’s partners for this production are the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the World Hunger Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Society of St Andrew, and Church World Service, with cooperation from Bread for the World and United Methodist Communication.

The National Council of Churches, founded in 1950, is America’s leading ecumenical organization, whose 35 Anglican, Protestant, Orthodox, Indigenous and Peace Church member denominations have more than 100,000 local congregations in all 50 states.

[Also on Ekklesia: Mennonite-backed film helps lift silence on depression 15/08/06; U2charist launches Episcopalian anti-poverty drive; Christians mobilise for UN anti-poverty goals; US church leaders renew Guantanamo Bay closure call; Baptists face US government fine for Cuba mission trip; US Christians urged to speak out against torture; US churches respond to bias claims; Combat fear, fundamentalism and Fox News, says church leader; Peace churches help to rebuild US Gulf Coast; American church leaders condemn torture; US Christians call for phased withdrawal from Iraq; US churches appeal to Bush as Israel seizes Lebanese village; US church leader urges action not obstruction on AIDS]


Church-backed TV show urges Americans to fight global hunger

-16/08/06

A powerful new TV documentary, presented by the National Council of Churches USA and produced by Mennonite Media, is aiming to encourage Americans to take an unflinching look at the persistent problem of hunger in the 21st century.

ëHunger No More: Faces Behind the Factsí also focuses on a range of solutions to the problem of global poverty. It will be available to NBC television network affiliates from 10 September 2006.

Most of those who watch the programme will have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. But for millions of people in the US, the worldís richest country, and for nearly a billion people worldwide, food insecurity is a daily reality.

The documentary specifically approaches hunger from the perspective of faith, declaring that hunger is more than a social issue ñ it is one which goes to the core of our belief systems.

“[This] is a moral issue that needs immediate resolution,” says Burton Buller, president of Mennonite Media, who produced the programme in collaboration with the NCC.

“The programme brings to life the moral dimension of this thorny issue, and offers up a vision for a new day when hunger is eradicated from the face of the earth,” explains Mr Buller.

The one-hour, closed-captioned special, presented by the NCCUSA in partnership with the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, will be telecast by NBC affiliates nationwide, beginning on Sunday, 10 September. Interested viewers are encouraged to call their NBC station and ask when the programme will be broadcast locally.

A study guide for ëHunger No More: Faces Behind the Factsí, and more information is available online at http://councilofchurches.org/hunger/.

NCC General Secretary the Rev Dr Bob Edgar said the TV special is being produced as part of the NCCUSA’s commitment “to address significant issues of faith and public policy and to pursue concrete solutions to the persistent challenge of poverty in a time of great wealth and capability in our society.”

Other participants in the documentary include Dr Jeffrey Sachs from the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Church World Service Executive Director the Rev John McCullough, Senator Elizabeth Dole from North Carolina, and former Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern from South Dakota.

In addition to Mennonite Media, the NCCUSA’s partners for this production are the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the World Hunger Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Society of St Andrew, and Church World Service, with cooperation from Bread for the World and United Methodist Communication.

The National Council of Churches, founded in 1950, is America’s leading ecumenical organization, whose 35 Anglican, Protestant, Orthodox, Indigenous and Peace Church member denominations have more than 100,000 local congregations in all 50 states.

[Also on Ekklesia: Mennonite-backed film helps lift silence on depression 15/08/06; U2charist launches Episcopalian anti-poverty drive; Christians mobilise for UN anti-poverty goals; US church leaders renew Guantanamo Bay closure call; Baptists face US government fine for Cuba mission trip; US Christians urged to speak out against torture; US churches respond to bias claims; Combat fear, fundamentalism and Fox News, says church leader; Peace churches help to rebuild US Gulf Coast; American church leaders condemn torture; US Christians call for phased withdrawal from Iraq; US churches appeal to Bush as Israel seizes Lebanese village; US church leader urges action not obstruction on AIDS]