December 3rd, 2007 at 9:25 am | posted by Aaron.Banks
The weekend of November 23 - 25 was the first ever ONE Sabbath weekend, in the pilot of year of what we hope will become a major expression of the impact of people and communities of faith in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.
ONE members across the country downloaded materials from our faith resource page ONE.org/faith and organized services and group activities in their houses of worship. A recap of St. John’s Lutheran Church’s ONE Sabbath in Belle Plaine, Minnesota is below.
On Sunday November 25th, members of the congregation were greeted by the St John’s Social Justice Team and presented with a reverse offering.
Pictured: Social Justice Team member Amy S. greets members with a reverse offering.
Half of the congregation received a baggie of rice and represented half the world’s population of earning 2 dollars or less.
The second group was presented with a baggie or rice and beans and represented 35% of the world’s population who earned just enough to get by and afford life’s basic necessities.
The next group represented all people living in wealthy nations such as the United States, regardless of income brackets. These 15% received gold chocolate coins (purchased through Global Exchange Fair Trade). Within this group, half received two coins and were representative of those who share their time and wealth with the poor.
Lastly, one person from each service received a gift certificate to a local restaurant as a representative of the world’s richest one percent.
During a brief temple talk at the onset of the service, the reverse offering was dramatized to provide a real world experience and members of the congregation were invited to stand up when their “food” group was identified. This activity was a great success and there were many positive comments after both services on having brought about awareness and contemplation on what extreme poverty is. I think this example really hit home and actually shocked many as they realized how little the majority of the world has, while we, living in a wealthy nation and regardless of income brackets are the minortiy and that we are blessed with what we have.
During each service, members also had the opportunity to join the ONE Campaign by signing their “tear off” sheet on their bulletin insert and add it to the offering plate as it went around…
November 30th, 2007 at 1:14 pm | posted by Aaron.Banks
The weekend of November 23 - 25 was the first ever ONE Sabbath weekend, in the pilot of year of what we hope will become a major expression of the impact of people and communities of faith in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.
ONE members across the country downloaded materials from our faith resource page ONE.org/faith and organized services and group activities in their houses of worship. A recap of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky is below.
Our ONE Sunday included a litany of prayers based on the MDGs, and a sermon wrapped around the ONE Campaign - available to listen at http://www.sermons.stmatt-ky.org/071125Trimble.m4a - at all 3 services. Declaration cards and bands were available to all, and we signed up 46 folks.
We also used ONE as a jump off point to promote a “simpler Christmas”, with resources from Heifer International, and Episcopal Relief and Development, as well as stations to make cards for soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, making ornaments for families in the inner city, and making Christmas lists of what we’re going to give this year, instead of get.
I’ve included a few pictures. Wish they were better quality, but it’s a cell phone.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:35 pm | posted by Aaron.Banks
The weekend of November 23 - 25 was the first ever ONE Sabbath weekend, in the pilot of year of what we hope will become a major expression of the impact of people and communities of faith in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.
ONE members across the country downloaded materials from our faith resource page ONE.org/faith and organized services and group activities in their houses of worship. A few of their stories are below.
-Aaron Banks
I led my church’s middle/high school group in the ONE Sabbath activities. We started actually 2 weeks ago talking about the issues, what ONE is, made a “bulletin board” and then yesterday they addressed the congregation explaining what they have learned and what can be done. It was a very powerful couple of weeks…I loved being able to introduce ONE to the kids and the congregation.
-Jennifer Carlson, Christian Ed Coordinator, Dedham Congregational Church- UCC, Dedham, ME
I’m just giving a shout out that my parish, Christ Church United Methodist in Fair Haven, NJ, had a powerful ONE Sabbath worship event! We are a very small church of about 30 in attendance, but our ONE Sabbath event was an uplifting, challenging and compelling worship service. Many were humbled…I live in a very affluent area, yet the importance of this message was heard as a small ripple…I hope to continue my support for this important mission!
-Peace, Rev. Eusun Kim
Since you asked, I thought I would write and describe what our church did for the ONE Sabbath. We have a newly formed “Social Justice Ministry” committee at our church, and we decided we wanted to do something for the ONE Sabbath…
We had a large poster-board with general information about the ONE Campaign, about ONE Sabbath, and some of the supporting/ partner organizations. We had a double sided handout for people who wanted information about (more…)
November 12th, 2007 at 11:44 am | posted by Aaron.Banks
As part of ONE Sabbath, ONE’s new outreach initiative to people and communities of faith, we’re asking our members to share stories of what their faith communities are already doing to make poverty history. ONE member Polly Nichols sent in this great post on the important work New Song Episcopal Church is doing in Coralville, Iowa.
-Aaron Banks
“Our youth group is sponsoring a Splash-a-thon to help provide clean, safe water for people in Swaziland. Swaziland is our sister diocese in Africa, one whose bishop has visited us and whom we pray for and with every Sunday.
The Splash-a-thon will be launched at a swimming and water-play party held in Des Moines this month during the annual Episcopal convention. Every church will pick up pledge sheets there for their young people to use signing up donors for each minute they splash over the winter months.
As the minutes accumulate, so will our churches’ understanding of the value of clean water and what the lack of it costs in human health and lives. To raise awareness, the splash-a-thon will be accompanied by online mini-lessons on water in the developing world.
It is with no sense of superiority that we undertake this project to give money to Swaziland’s people to help them with their water problems. Rather, we give with humility and embarrassment that as Iowans, we ourselves are so mindlessly spoiling a resource that Africans are literally dying to have.
New Song’s youth members are also planning the final event they will hold after three months of Splash-a-thon activity, a splashy affair devoted to gathering in the pledges, totaling them up, and celebrating individual and team successes with fun and silly prizes. We will know then how many families we supplied with water purification kits and how much extra money we contributed to a major Swaziland water project that is under way. And, together with our Swaziland friends, we will have learned how to be advocates for protecting God’s gift of safe and clean water here at home as well as in Africa.
Polly Nichols, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics”
We were thrilled to have SONICFLOOd in Las Vegas last week to play a show and rally ONE members of faith at The Crossing Church. Over 800 people turned out to hear Sonicflood’s inspirational music and message.
Throughout the evening over 150 people signed the declaration, including some of our newest and youngest members. Although some of the youngsters didn’t have email address, they were very pleased to know that their name would be added to the list because they wanted “to help the children live.”
We are lucky to have Pastors Shane Philip, Chris Cooley, and Ben Parker as ONE ambassadors. They held a service on the ONE Campaign in April after which they signed up many members of their congregation and they are also excited about the ONE Sabbath program this month.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:27 pm | posted by Aaron.Banks
A month ago, we launched ONE Sabbath, ONE’s outreach initiative to people and communities of faith and the response we got back from our members was awesome.
Now we’re making tools available so you can organize a ONE Sabbath event at your house of worship for the weekend of November 23 - 25, when people of faith across America will be coming together to highlight the need for action to make poverty history.
Visit ONE.org/faith/materials.html to download toolkits that will help you organize a ONE Sabbath worship service, youth group activity or small discussion group.
Currently, we only have Christian toolkits available, but Jewish and Muslim ones will be online soon and we’ll post about them here, too.
This year’s ONE Sabbath is just the beginning. By downloading a toolkit and taking action, you’ll become part of the very first ONE Sabbath. We’re counting on you to tell us what works and what doesn’t as we get ready to take ONE Sabbath to every church, synagogue, mosque and temple in the country next year.
And even if you can’t put together a ONE Sabbath event in time for the weekend of November 23 - 25, our responsibility to care for the impoverished is timeless. You can still download a toolkit, get your community of faith involved in ONE’s anti-poverty work and begin organizing a ONE Sabbath event for another time.
ONE offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are humming, as we prepare for the upcoming SONICFLOOd concert!! Known as the “fathers of modern worship music,” the band has agreed to perform at a free concert to raise awareness of global poverty and disease, and to help kick off our new faith-based campaign, ONE Sabbath.
Concerts are at:
The Crossing Church in Las Vegas at 7:00pm on November 7th;
TBD location in New Hampshire at 7:00pm on November 13th:
TBD location in South Carolina at 7:00pm on November 14th :
Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines at 8:30 on November 15th
We’d love to have you and your friends join us!! If you want to help us get ready for this awesome event, give us a call or swing your state’s local office! See you there!!!
It was a privilege to be at the ONE Campaign luncheon on Monday, October 15, at Noah’s Ark restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa. The guest speaker from Kenya, Fidelis Gathoni Wainaina, is a remarkable woman of faith, courage, and hope. Her faith has led her into direct ministry in her homeland with mothers who are living with HIV/AIDS and their children. God has also given her the oppotunity to give voice to the voiceless with dignataries such as the General Secretary of the United Nations, and the Canadian Parliament.
I can’t imagine the slightest division for Fidelis between her inward faith in Jesus Christ and her ministry among people living in extreme poverty. They are not two parts of her faith. She knows only one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of us all.
In meeting Fidelis I was reminded for Christians there are not two Churches, or at least should not be — the church of the global north and the church of the global south. There is only one Body of Christ, of which we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. Fidelis’ witness is a call from God to greater compassion, greater prayer, greater faith, and greater action together until with God’s help we make poverty history and eliminate HIV/AIDS completely.
-Gary Nims, Pastor, Immauel United Methodist Church, Des Moines, Iowa
October 5th, 2007 at 10:49 am | posted by Aaron.Banks
We just launched ONE Sabbath, our new initiative to bring the spirit of our churches, synagogues, mosques and temples to the movement to make poverty history.
During the weekend of November 23rd—25th, congregations that sign up to be a part of ONE Sabbath will host special services focused on a simple question “What can we do, as congregations and as believers, to bring healing to a world in which 28,000 children die every day from poverty-related causes?”
By taking part in ONE Sabbath, your congregation will be out in front, exploring how people of faith can bring compassion and leadership to the fight to end global poverty.
Faith has always been a driving force behind social change and that continues today. ONE is proud to partner with religious organizations and denominations that are already tackling issues like hunger, debt relief and HIV/AIDS. Visit our faith resource page to learn more about what your faith community is already doing to fight global poverty and how you can make that a part of ONE Sabbath.
The Torah instructs Jews to care for the poor through acts of compassion and loving kindness. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches that what is done unto the poor is done unto Him. Zakat, serving the suffering of humanity, is one of the five pillars of Islam. We can all live our beliefs by standing up for those living in extreme poverty.
And this fall’s ONE Sabbath is only the beginning. In the next year, we’ll build on this weekend of hope and activism to work with people of faith and houses of worship across the country to elevate the issue of global poverty in 2008—when America will go to the polls and vote for new leaders and policies—and beyond.
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
