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

Last night I was joined by 100 faith leaders from across the country, to launch and begin to plan ONE Sabbath events in churches, mosques, synagogues and temples. Speaking on the call with me were 4 national faith leaders – Princess Kasune Zulu, a noted AIDS activist, Zambia native and Christian activist in Chicago; Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Tikkum Olam for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Imam Mohamed Hag Magid, Vice President of the Islamic Society of North America; Ishani Chowdhury, the Hindu American Foundation Director of Public Policy. They endorsed ONE Sabbath and discussed the role of faith inspired advocacy with ONE.

ONE Sabbath organizes congregations to raise awareness and advocate with ONE through their worship services, small groups, youths groups and women’s organizations.

If you missed the call last night and would like to listen in, check it out here.

And do be sure to learn more sign up to host your own ONE Sabbath event at www.one.org/onesabbath.

-Adam Phillips

This week over 1,000 Christian pastors and lay leaders and activists will converge on Washington, DC to attend Sojourners’ “Mobilization to End Poverty.” ONE has joined with World Vision, the ELCA, and Oxfam America as the major cosponsors of this mobilization.

The 4-day event focuses on both domestic and global poverty, and ONE is the lead cosponsor on the international agenda. Arjun Mody from our Government Relations Team and Mikki Imai and Josh Lozman from our Policy Team have done great work in hammering out the global agenda.

The attendees are a natural audience for ONE. Many ONE members are already attending and we hope to make many others ONE members at the event.

ONE will participate in key ways during the event:

• ONE President & CEO David Lane will speak during a plenary session today at 1:30 EST in a session called “Half in 10 and the MDGs – Are these Goals Achievable?”
• Arjun will lead the training on international issues for the Lobby Day on the Hill.
• ONE will host an evening reception on Tuesday at 8:30. This is another chance to introduce those attending to ONE.
• During the only workshop on global poverty, I will moderate and Kenyan Professor Ndunge Kiiti will present. Prof. Kiiti is a leader from the partner organization Micah Challenge.
• ONE will keep a constant presence throughout the event at the ONE table. Thanks to the ONE intern crew for helping with tabling!

This promises to be a terrific event, and we’ll bring you more updates as they occur in the coming days.

To learn more, check out: www.sojo.net/mobilization.

-Adam Phillips

ONE partner World Vision gears up for World Malaria Day (April 25) with this video and a new website: www.endmalaria.org.

As World Malaria Day gets closer, ONE will provide more ways to educate and take action.

Take a look.

-Mark Brinkmoeller