Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation

It might be a silly question, but what does the Diocese of California's response to the Millennium Development Goals look like? Can you visualize all the different relationships that are growing out of our commitment to end poverty, disease and degradation of the climate? When you try to imagine it, does the problem seem way too big and overwhelming? Are all of those in need simply too far away for all of us to help>

One way to see (visually) how Episcopalians in the San Franscisco Bay Area are responding to the global environmental crisis and the needs of the world's poor might be to draw a map, and show where connections are being made: Oakland and Uganda; Walnut Creek and Honduras; San Francisco and El Salvador; and that is exactly what EGR board member Kevin Jones, entrepreneurial mapper of social networks and member of Holy Innocents, San Francisco, recommends. In fact, Jones has come up with a way to show you that the problems are not insurmountable and that there are people you know who are doing great things to achieve the MDGs.

The MDG Mappng Project is his solution.

The MDG Mapping Project (which will go online in the very near future at mdg.episcopalbayarea.org) uses Google's maps and blogging software to show connections, to tell the stories of people in need and the stories of people responding to that need.

When asked how both maps and blogs together can help Episcopalians help othrs, Jones says, "A map, when it's tied to a story, can help answer a couple of the biggest objections people have about getting involved in MDG work: that the problems are too big, and too far away."

In response to the objection that these problems are simply too grand a scale, Jones says, "the best way to make a complex story simple is by visualization."

The technology used to achieve both the mapping and storytelling of MDG wormight sound overwhelming -- lik you might need an engineering degree in order to use the MDG maps. Not so, says Jones, "If you can cut and paste a block of text in a Microsoft Word document, you can use the MDG Maps."

The idea that if you are doing work that helps to achieve one of the MDGs, you can go online and easilly map the connection a then blog about why this work is important, who is involved, and how others can be involved. And the storytellign is two-way. In other words, not only can Episcopalians in the Diocese of California go online and tell their stories, but people on the ground in developing countries working in AIDS clinics in Honduras or digging wells for clean water in Zambia can make entries to the MDG Map as well.

"We want the information to be bidirectional," says Jones. "We live in a postcolonial world, and that will be illustrated through a two-way platform."

The Diocese of California is partnering with Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation to bring the MDG Map to the broader church. Once the Map is funtional for the Diocese, EGR will be the platform to launch it nationally (and globally).

According to the Rev. Mike Kinman, EGR executive director, the MDG Map helps people get past the questions: What can one person do? What can one conregation do?

"One of the things that I've found in the Church as I travel around," says Kinman. "is that there is so much fabulous ministry going on, and so much of it is happening in isolation. People just don't know what's out there. The MDG Map solves that problem."

And perhaps more important, the MDG Map can be inspirational. "The way it can spark ideas is really important," says Kinman. "The mapping lets people know that there is a lot that they can do becase there are people already doing it."