"The MDGs -- A Vehicle For The Practical Idealist" -- by Dr. John Hammock

For EGR the work on promoting the Millennium Development Goals is as much about promoting personal transformation as it is about promoting the eight goals of the MDGs. The EGR mission calls us to conversion, to root our work with the MDGs squarely on our faith as Christians. This is why we want to build a movement, not just promote a series of projects overseas. Yes, it is important to help alleviate poverty and suffering overseas. Yes, it is important for our Bishops to march in London to lift up the MDGs. But it is equally important for each of us to pray, study, give and act—to make our personal journey intersect with the work of the MDGs. Please see EGRs mission on our website. Also check out our Rule of Life that incorporates these action-steps.

In today’s blog I want to share a personal story. It is from before the MDG campaign. I share it because for me the struggle to balance social activism and my personal life has been a constant one. As we build our movement we need to be sensitive to where each of us is—and realize that personal transformation and conversion does not mean that we will all be alike or be at the same place. In our faith or in our actions we need to celebrate our differences and realize that each person is on her own journey. I share one experience of mine in the hope that it may resonate with others.

In 1979, I was going through a particularly difficult personal time, struggling with the trade-offs between social activism to eradicate poverty and living a middle class family life in suburban America. I wanted to do both, but I felt that I was constantly compromising my goals of social justice. At one point I went to speak about my dilemma with the minister of the church I was attending. He was an older man with years of experience in a variety of parishes in the United States. He listened intently to my dilemma. He had one, and only one, piece of advice. He said, “John, God is not found only among the poor or behind an outhouse. God is everywhere. God is in relationships. Believe it or not, God is also with the rich.”

My values, my politics and my God had been firmly entrenched in solidarity with the oppressed and the impoverished. I tried to hear the pastor’s words. It has taken me almost a lifetime to understand the deep meaning and validity of those words. For me idealism and social activism are focused primarily on liberating the impoverished from oppression. It seems to me so clear that as long as people are impoverished, all human beings are diminished. But meaning is not only found in working with the impoverished. Meaning can be found in working with the rich, in battling for causes that do not directly relate to the impoverished—the environment, population explosion, the preservation of land and of other species on this planet, the fight for clean and fair elections, the rights of immigrants and labor--the list of possibilities is endless. Practical idealism screams out at us to get involved to further the values of a humane world.

But my pastor friend was going beyond that. He was also insisting that God is found in relationships, that meaning can be found outside of social activism and outside idealistic action to change the world. I have learned over time to take the time for myself for meditation, prayer, silent retreats. These are not self indulgence; they are fuel for the on-going work. And yes, I do believe that God is also found in relationships. They take time and yet, it is in these close personal connections that we learn to trust, that we find a way to express our faith and love.

However, for me, a life just focused on personal relationships or personal transformation is not enough. With the rampant injustice in this world, with the oppression of the poor, with the destruction of the environment, with the imperfect economic and political systems under which we live, with the issues that bombard our senses every day, it seems to me a cop out to pretend that none of this exists and to only value our own journey and our personal relationships. Of course, it is important to take care of oneself. It is important to have meaningful relationships. But it is equally important to be involved in social, economic and political issues to improve our society. Practical idealism calls for involvement, for some level of commitment to social action.

I have just finished a book to be distributed next month by Harvard University Press. In it my co-authors and I lay out some ideas on how to live as a practical idealist in today’s world. Practical Idealists: Changing the World and Getting Paid does not provide a magic bullet, but it does show that it is possible to combine personal transformation and social change. The MDGs are one clear manifestation of pragmatic achievable goals. They cannot be reached just through technology and the work of experts. Rather they will be reached if enough people work to combine social change with their personal transformation. For those of us who are Christian this transformation is grounded in our faith. The MDGs thus become an excellent vehicle for linking the need for social change with a balanced, meaningful, dedicated life, fueled by our faith in a living God. This is a theme for global reconciliation among Episcopalians, among Christians.

Dr. John Hammock is an associate professor of public policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy & The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is currently on leave until September, 2008 and working Sabina Alkire as a senior research associate at the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, John was the Executive Director at Oxfam America from 1984-1995 and Executive Director at ACCION International from 1973-1980. He is the president of the board of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation.

"The Missional Dimension of Life" -- by the Micah Challenge

Today's post 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 send a blank email to regine.nagel@micahchallenge.org with the words 'subscribe prayer' in the subject line.

Reflection

‘All too quickly, certain issues in society are associated with certain political directions without the realisation that it is, in the first place, the biblical-theological question that Christians need to discuss. Reason for that lies in the failure to realise that Christian faith is relevant for public and social matters’, argues Andreas Kusch.

We are called to honour God by doing whatever we do for the triune God and this will always have a ‘missional dimension’.

In John 16: 5-16 we are reminded that the Holy Spirit is there to guide us.

‘Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit it becomes clear to the individual and to the church when comforting words, practical love, political involvement, prayer and fasting, social projects or evangelistic preaching are necessary. The Holy Spirit helps us to do the right thing in the most varied situations.’

Prayer

Let us pray:

• For the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we seek to be available to God.
• Our prayer focus this week is for Micah Challenge Haiti:

Jean Valery Vital-Herne from Haiti writes: We are busy working towards lobbying our President and Prime Minister ahead of their attendance at the UN High-level meeting on the MDGs in September.

Please pray for us as we inform churches about this important meeting and encourage them to hold their leaders to account. I would love our churches in Haiti to wake up to their responsibility towards their fellow Christians and non-Christians; please pray that Micah Challenge in Haiti can be a prophetic voice in our country.

• Reflecting on the statistic below: we pray for all these men and women who arrive in cities with the hope for a better life and more opportunities to make a living.
  
  We pray for city planners and other policy makers that they will have wisdom while developing clear strategies to improve urban infrastructure.

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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 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

‘Half of Asia's population will be living in cities by 2020, as some 1.1 billion people move to urban environments over the next 20 years. This is more than 100,000 people each day…Already more than half a billion Asians currently live in slums.’

Source: World Bank; June 2008

"Farrow's Darfur Olympics & Our Olympic Shame" -- by Christopher J. Finlay in the Huffington Post

With just days to go before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Mia Farrow is on her way to a refugee camp in Darfur to host The Darfur Olympics, a week-long web broadcast that will be timed to coincide with the first week of the Olympic Games. Although the majority of Farrow's Olympics-related activism, such as her now almost completely moribund calls for major world leaders to boycott the Beijing Games, have been misguided and would have likely hurt her cause had they been taken more seriously, it is important to recognize just how cannily she was able to use the Beijing Olympic Spotlight to promote her agenda. While many might welcome the Olympic Spotlight as a powerful tool for activists, this tool ought to be seen as a source of great shame for us all. This is because the Olympic Spotlight plays a dual role. It both focuses Western attention on neglected causes as well as demonstrating how fickle and disengaged this same audience is with global issues in the absence of major media events like the Olympics.

Appeals to some form of global morality are central in the majority of the Olympic-related anti-China/pro-human rights rhetoric (it continues to be increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two). It is claimed that the abuse of human rights by the Chinese government at home and their abuse of human rights by proxy in Darfur are clear violations of a universal moral code. Western activists use of the Olympic Spotlight has attempted to highlight China's amorality. If China is to 'graduate' into world power status, the argument goes, then the Chinese government must develop a moral code and that code must be in line with the one we profess to have in the West. Quite frankly, if China were to adopt a new moral code (they may be immoral by some standards, but the country certainly isn't without a moral code), they could find a much better model than ours.

In highlighting the West's capricious appetite for stories of genocide in Africa and political and religious intolerance and killings in Asia, the Olympic spotlight has, in fact, inadvertently revealed our own moral bankruptcy. It is reprehensible that activists such as Farrow must patiently wait for global media events to coincide with their causes in order to have an audience. We shouldn't need two weeks of sports and ceremony to learn that something terribly evil is happening in Africa or to realize that we should be fighting to stop it. The fact that we do indicates that our own morals are as transient, trend-oriented and, I fear, temporary as fashion. Summer 2008's style is Darfur. What's the style going to be next season?

Read the entire piece on the Huffington Post here.

"Take Action: Add Poverty-Fighting to The Democratic and Republican Party Platforms" - by The ONE Campaign

When the Democratic and Republican parties meet for their conventions at the end of August and early September, they’ll be unveiling their parties’ new platforms - and we want to make sure that the fight against extreme poverty is an important part of both of those platforms.

That why our ONE Vote ‘08 Co-Chairs, Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle will be meeting with leaders of both parties, and taking a petition from ONE members urging them to make poverty-fighting a priority for both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Click this link and we’ll add your name to the petition

Here's the petition text:

As a proud American, I urge you to make ending extreme poverty and global disease in the developing world a core part of your 2008 platform by including commitments to:

• Fight AIDS, TB and malaria and improve basic health services, particularly for mothers and young children
• Ensure access to clean water, basic sanitation and sufficient food supplies
• Spur economic growth through equitable trade and investment policies
• Modernize and increase development assistance, focusing on partnership, transparency and accountability
• Achieve universal primary education

"What Two Have Done and Are Doing in Africa" -- by Hannah Miller

When Drs. Nancy and Gerry Hardison retired, that's when they began their real life's work. While employed, they volunteered at the San Diego Liver Foundation and the County Jail, helping wherever they could, and being enriched by their experiences.

“We both felt strongly that we should use the skills we received in our educations and our work to help those in need,” said Dr. Nancy Hardison.

Upon retirement, Dr. Nancy Hardison accepted an invitation to teach in Africa, and Dr. Gerry Hardison agreed to work at Kenyatta National Hospital. That experience led to more opportunities and now, almost ten years later, they are involved in over ten different ministries in Kenya.

About the Orphan Feeding Program

The Rev. Michael Russell, Rector of All Souls’, San Diego, the Hardisons’ home congregation, describes the Orphan Feeding Program: “Maseno is one of the epicenters of the AIDS/HIV pandemic in Africa. Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned and many of these are HIV positive. They are shunned by the culture and cared for by aging grandparents, usually widowed grandmothers. In response to this incredible devastation, the Mothers’ Union has organized, with Dr. Nancy Hardison’s help, to support these children.”

The mothers, supported by funds from the US, prepare and serve one hot meal a week to the orphans. They also play games with the children and teach classes.

“The Mothers’ Union members and the guardians of the children all volunteer their time, often causing friction at home and within the larger community. When asked how they found it in themselves to defy social convention, they answered, ‘We are mothers.’”

About Working in African Hospitals

“I saw familiar diseases in stages more advanced than I had thought possible,” said Dr. Gerry Hardison. “I saw diseases I had never seen before and learned about their accepted treatment. I found physical findings that I had read about in medical school but had never seen. … When the time came for staff to give speeches at my farewell party, one consultant admitted that they all thought I had come for a short vacation and no one expected me to show up each day for work. The next speaker expressed surprise that on rounds I actually touched the patients and examined them. Both were dead serious.”

Advice On “What One Can Do”

“Start with what is near you and then follow,” says Dr. Nancy Hardison. “God will open doors as you respond and you will find yourself stretching way beyond what you dreamed or thought possible. Gerry and I use Matthew 25:31-46 as our marching orders: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, … Whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.’”

About Volunteering in Africa

“It is a joy, a blessing and a privilege to serve here,” says Dr. Nancy Hardison. “Our faith continues to grow as we serve. We see the miracle of the loaves and fishes all the time. We are thankful for the support back home.”

Congregational Involvement

In 1999, the Hardisons’ home parish, All Souls, San Diego, donated enough money to complete the rectory of Essaba’s small Anglican parish, St. Andrew’s. All Souls’ continues to be the main lifeline of support for the Hardisons; their treasurer, Cynthia Fleri, wires funds on a monthly basis to Africa. The rector of All Souls, the Rev. Michael Russell, visited the Hardisons and wrote a comprehensive guide to their work in Kenya, “Partnering with Kenya’s Poorest: putting the bottom rung on the development ladder.” (click here to read it online) In it, he says:

All Souls’ Episcopal Church has worked with two parish missioners, Nancy and Gerry Hadrison, on several projects in Kenya. Nancy is a retired business professor from Point Loma Nazarene University and Gerry is a retired gastro-enterologist from the University of California, San Diego. Together they have worked on medical and business projects in Nairobi and Maseno, Kenya. All Souls’ has been their sponsor with the Episcopal Volunteer Service and has been a financial conduit for delivering contributions safely to the projects. In addition, we have committed portions of our central budget and other outreach monies to projects they have helped organize.

This fertile collaboration has not only changed people’s lives, it now offers All Souls’, and those who wish to work with us, the opportunity to deliver contributions directly to projects that will move people on to the development ladder.

The article contains information about the programs All Souls’ helps to fund, including Maseno Hospital, the Mother’s Union and more. Contributions can be sent directly to All Souls’ Church, 1475 Catalina Blvd, San Diego, CA 92107. The monies are wired to Kenya on a monthly basis. The Rev. Michael Russell can be reached at: michael.pointloma@gmail.com. The Hardisons can be reached at: hardison@africaonline.co.ke.

Photos:
Top - Dr. Nancy Hardison with members of the Mothers' Union
Middle - Orphans line up for their one hot meal per week provided by the Mothers' Union
Bottom - Drs. Nancy and Gerry Hardison relaxing at home in Kenya with their best friend

Hannah Miller is the communications assistant in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego

The EGR WikiMDG project!

Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation is looking for any and all ideas for how to bring the MDGs to life in congregations and dioceses. And the best ideas come from you!

This is an invitation to a collaborative project (a WikiMDG project!). We've put each of the 8 MDGs in a Googledocument and what we want you to add is your ideas for how to make each or any of them come to life. Something that people could use in their congregation, or diocesan convention ... or something we could use at General Convention!

ACCESS THE WikiMDG DOCUMENT HERE

It can be something you've already done or just an idea you have. And no idea is too nutty ... sometimes the nuttiest ideas are the best and you never know what your idea is going to make someone else think of.

Better still, set your youth group loose on this. See what they can come up with. There's only one rule:

HAVE FUN WITH THIS & BE CREATIVE!!!

So add your own ideas or comment on ideas other people have. This document is a living, growing thing and the more people who chip in, the better it will be!

Just go to the WikiMDG document and have at it!

Questions? Leave a comment below and we'll answer it.

Let's create something really cool together.

"How do we know we're the Body of Christ" -- by the Micah Challenge

Today's post 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 send a blank email to regine.nagel@micahchallenge.org with the words 'subscribe prayer' in the subject line.

Reflection

"How can we know whether we are just a religious club for the promotion of our own inner wellbeing, or whether we are the body of Christ?" asks Andreas Kusch from Germany.

The indicator, he says, is in our worship to God, ‘motivated by the Holy Spirit and expressed in an increase of love for God, the neighbour and the one furthest away.’

In 1 John 4: 7-21 we learn that love is the very nature of the Trinitarian God, seeking a relationship with all of creation. Without this love relationship to God, ‘actions often turn into legalism or lawlessness’.

‘God wants to work through us.’ This statement is often heard in Bible studies, devotions and sermons. It is widespread common knowledge that Christ wants to influence, through us, our immediate personal relationships. But we often restrict our thinking and behaviour to the individual personal level. God, however, has put us into a context far broader than this. He wants us as Christians to carry responsibility for his world. Indeed, faith that does not relate to the world falls short of the true nature of a relationship with God.’

Prayer

Let us pray:

*Andreas writes: ‘Have we ever tried to pray after watching the news? Are we able to imagine God’s ability to improve the situation that our society is in?

*For the YMCA Europe Festival 2008, 3-9 August 2008, in Prague, Czech Republic where 7000+ young people from over 50 countries are expected to participate.

Please pray for the promotional activities of Micah Challenge:

*That young people will be challenged to put their faith into action for social justice and global poverty issues.

*That many will sign up to participate in Micah Sunday and Stand up Take Action from 17-19 October 2008.

*Reflecting on the statistic below: Today we want to pray particularly for the over 1 billion young men and women in our world. We pray for hope as they face a difficult and fast changing world. We pray for an increase of employment programs and opportunities for young people so that they can more easily find their place in our society.

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 8: Develop a global partnership for development (trade/aid/debt)

Target 16: In co-operation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth.

‘Of more than 1 billion people today between the ages of 15 and 25 years old, 85 per cent live in developing countries where they comprise more than half of the total workforce. The slowdown of the global economy, armed conflict, and internal national turmoil point to alarming downward employment trends for these youth and their economic and life prospects.’

Source: Development Gateway, 2008
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/special/youthemployment/index.do