Last week ONE joined with hundreds of leaders at the National Association of Evangelicals “Evangelical Leaders Forum” at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in nearby Landover, Maryland mobilizing action in the fight global poverty alongside other national and global challenges. The consensus here is that despite many differences and difficulties, there is hope when we work together in achieving positive change.

ONE was a cosponsor of the event, along with Micah Challenge USA, where we led discussion and discernment in how churches can best raise awareness and act in concern around AIDS, clean water, education and maternal health issues through ONE Sabbath and Micah Sunday. Other ONE partners such as Bread for the World, Save Darfur, and World Relief were also in attendance.

Friday morning we heard from Wesleyan General Superintendent and ONE Sabbath supporter Jo Anne Lyon on the importance of the church’s role in working to end poverty by direct relief and development as well as its role in advocacy to elected leaders. Lyon, in reflecting on Psalm 82 , made a compelling and passionate plea for the church to work towards women empowerment, continued AIDS initiatives like PEPFAR, as well as leadership for care for the environment – because “the world’s poor are hurt first and worst” amidst the climate crisis. Later at lunch, former President George W. Bush’s speechwriter and adviser Michael Gerson gave an eyewitness account of the President’s historic PEPFAR initiative and his on the ground stories of seeing US funds at work to rebuild a community in Ethiopia.

It was a spirited couple of days of conversation and calling – I look forward to the action that will come out of this national gathering in the days to come.

This past week, Australian’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, along with Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull, lifted up the role that citizens, people of faith, and governments have in the fight against global poverty at the launch of the new Poverty and Justice Bible, at the Parliament House in Canberra.

Joined by Tim Costello of World Vision Australia as well as representatives of Micah Challenge, Prime Minister Rudd highlighted Australians collective commitment to increased international development assistance, and the role faith groups have in advocating for more and better aid:

Of course, for those of us engaged in national political life, our work on policy is incomplete unless we are working arm-in-arm with the great organisations of the Church and charitable sector.

All of you in this room know full well that there is a limit to what Government can do. All of you know full well that, when it comes to dealing with poverty, at home and abroad, this is often done best when you have a creative and effective partnership between the resources of Government and the compassion of Church and charitable organisations.

…In Australia, what we have sought to do in recent times is to put our shoulder to the wheel by lifting Australia’s contribution to ODA around the developing world…

Problems abroad however, cannot be ignored. Remember, it was [John] Wesley who said ‘the world is my parish’. And so it is for us as well.

Therefore, by lifting what we seek to do around the world, and by also putting our shoulder to the wheels of other countries in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, our objective is to make a real and quantifiable difference.

Video of the speech can be found here.

-Adam Phillips

Hi there, my name is Adam Phillips. I recently joined the team at ONE as Faith Relations Manager. From time to time I’ll let you know what’s going on with our faith partners in The ONE Campaign. Before I joined the team in DC I have posted here in the past as a local pastor in Chicago and as co-chair of ONE’s partner, Micah Challenge USA .

I wanted to let you know about some significant commitments that were made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the recent World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) general assembly in Pattaya, Thailand. 500 evangelical church leaders, representing some 128 national evangelical alliance groups from the US and around the world, passed major resolutions, on such issues as HIV/AIDS, poverty, the environment, and the global financial crisis.

Recognizing that the MDGs “echoed the mind” of teaching in their own tradition, the WEA called on government leaders in both the Global North and Global South to “significantly scale up their efforts to achieve the MDGs” – seeing the on-going crisis of global poverty as a critical threat to peace and security. Beyond calling their elected national leaders to act, though, the church leaders called on their own faith groups, congregations, pastors and laity to join and collaborate with The Micah Challenge. This was a major conclusion of the assembly as they saw it as a response “ to Love and Justice” in a time where economic challenges abound.

This moment in Thailand by a diverse group of global church leaders is just one of many that show how, working together as ONE, we all have a role to play in making poverty history.

-Adam Phillips