Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation
What One Can Do
February 8, 2007
0.7% and ONE -- What's the Deal?
These two numbers get tossed around quite a bit as we talk about the Millennium Development Goals. Where do they come from? What's the difference? How are the related? It's really pretty simple:

0.7% is the amount of rich nation's gross national income it would take to achieve the MDGs. In 1998, the Lambeth Conference asked all dioceses to fund international development at a minumum of this level of their budget. General Convention resolutions in 2000, 2003 and 2006 affirmed this and dioceses, congregations, individuals and our national structures have followed suit.

ONE is a national political advocacy campaign of which the Episcopal Church is a partner. The ask is an additional 1% of the U.S. budget for global poverty eradication ... as well as debt cancellation, trade reform and anti-corruption measures. This additional 1% ($24 billion) would get us halfway (0.35%) to 0.7%.
But they're both about much more...

Keep reading
More MDGs for Lent
Pennies for the PlaygroundLast week's Lenten MDG resources were so popular, we thought we'd share more.
*ERD's Lenten Meditations (order by tomorrow to guarantee delivery by Ash Wednesday)
*Sojourner's "Preaching the Word" reflections and sermon prep for Lent
*"Pennies for the Playground" (a great example of a MDG Lenten children's project from the Diocese of Maryland.)
MDGs in the News
AIDS vaccine
What One is Doing
John Sentamu
News and notes from around the church:
*Hellen Grace Wangusa, former UN Africa coordinator of the MDGs, installed as new UN Anglican Observer.
*The Archbishop of York called for a renewed effort by the British Government to combat child poverty, third world debt and racism.
*St. Bartholomew's, Nashville, TN is coordinating a nationwide appeal to "Save Darfur" with Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, the Bishop of the Kadugli/Nuba Mountains Diocese, Episcopal Church of Sudan.
MDG Resource Grab Bag
e-ministry network
A cornucopia of MDG stuff to tickle your imagination
*Change.org - a new social networking site for social causes & nonprofits.
*Dylan Breuer offers this collection of sermons on the MDGs.
*A wombat tells you about the state of the world ... no, really.
*The Alleluia Booklet -- resurrection reflections to benefit the MDGs.
*E-ministry network offers new "tele-classes" on the MDGs in February and March.
Quote of the Week
SMitheram

 "In this agreement between world leaders  (the Millennium Development Goals) something that Jesus taught us shines through. Aside from the Human Rights Declaration, there has never been so much consensus internationally as there is now."
-Micah Challenge International Coordinator
Michael Smitheram
What One Congregation
Can Do
Calvary, Flemington, NJ
The MDGs can do more than draw us into the world, they can bring the generations together.

That's what Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, NJ, is discovering. Deacon Deborah Piggins tells how:

We've begun by educating adults and youngsters in church. The first Sunday we talked about MDGs in earnest was January 21 when the gospel reading was Jesus reading in the synagogue "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ..." and it was so easy to weave MDG into that.

We had already established a working group of adults who will educate themselves, discuss, and then educate others and decide how we will be involved as a congregation. MDGs will be integrated into many aspects of church life, including the church school curriculum. Parents will work with their children in the classrooms to teach and discuss and do hands-on projects together.

Read the rest (with lots of cool ideas) here. Then let us know what your congregation is doing.
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