Archbishop Fred Hiltz — marching on behalf of those for whom the MDGs represent the difference between death and life. Photo: Art Babych

I am delighted that this edition of MinistryMatters is devoted to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and I want to thank all who have contributed articles. I trust they will provoke thought and action, locally and globally.

These goals were born at the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000, at which all 189 UN member states adopted the Millennium Declaration.  The goals are:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development.

In a paper delivered at the spring 2007 meeting of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops, the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas said: “These goals are not some kind of unified, supernational, global, integrated United Nations program to cure the ills of the world…. They are not about a single quick fix. They are about building a movement for the repair of the world. They represent a vision of what can be; a vision of a restored, reconciled world, a union of shalom…. They serve as an invitation to get on with what God wants us to be about in the world.”

During the Lambeth Conference this summer, over 1,500 bishops, spouses, and ecumenical guests accepted an invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury to participate in a walk through London in support of these goals. We walked from Whitehall past the Houses of Parliament and across the River Thames to Lambeth Palace. There, we were greeted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who described the march as “one of the greatest public demonstrations of faith this great city has ever seen.” He went on to say, “You have sent a simple and very clear message, with ringing force, that poverty can be eradicated, that poverty must be eradicated and if we all work together for change, poverty will be eradicated.”

Commending people of faith for their actions in the name of justice and peace for all, the prime minister then challenged us, saying, “We need a march not just to Lambeth, but to New York on September 25, when the United Nations will meet in an emergency session to address poverty.”

He challenged us to ask our governments “to make good the promises that have been made, to redeem the pledges made, to make good the Millennium Development Goals that are not being met.”

In response to that challenge, Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and I travelled to Ottawa on September 25.  Along with other church leaders, we participated in a liturgy of the word in Christ Church Cathedral. We then walked and stopped for prayer at locations pertinent to each of the goals.

When we arrived at the United Nations Association office, Bishop Johnson and I presented a joint statement, calling on our prime minister and other world leaders to establish a timeline for achieving the MDGs.

These goals, modern as they are, have an ancient ring about them, for they are in the spirit of the prophets who, in the name of God, called people to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly, one with another before God (Micah 6:8). They are in the spirit of the gospel of God in Christ. Jesus began his public ministry by reading from the scroll of Isaiah (chapter 61) in the synagogue in Nazareth. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Time and again in the gospels Jesus demonstrates his care and concern for the poor, the oppressed, and those pushed to the edges of society. He calls his followers to show similar compassion. So important is this vocation that the extent to which we respond is the very basis on which judgement will be passed on the last day (Matthew 25).

This vocation finds expression in the way we pray and act as a church. In contemporary language we pray “for the whole human family, that we may live together in justice and peace” (Litany 6, Book of Alternative Services). We pray that we may “discover new and just ways of sharing the goods of the earth, struggling against exploitation, greed, or lack of concern: [that we may] all live by the abundance of [God's] mercies” (Litany 4, Book of Alternative Services). The church of this generation is acutely aware of the need for actions of repentance and renewal.

Nowhere is this expression of repentance clearer than in the Ash Wednesday Litany of Penitence: “Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done, for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.” And nowhere is our commitment to renewal more clearly stated than in our baptismal vows, which include the commitment to “strive for justice and peace among all people,” a commitment grounded in “respect [for] the dignity of every human being.”

Marching in support of the MDGs, speaking on behalf of the millions for whom these goals represent the difference between death and life, calling on the leaders of nations to press on with achievable timelines for the full realization of the goals is a solemn obligation. To honour it is to stand up for the peace, for justice and joy, for the liberation and life that God wills for his children of every language, race, and nation. It is, as the hymn writer puts it, the call to “to use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around.”

I encourage you to read and reflect upon these goals in the spirit of a prayer once found in the Quebec Diocesan Gazette.

Give us, O God, a vision for our world as your love would make it-where the weak are protected and none goes hungry or poor; where the goods of this life are shared and everyone can enjoy them; where different nations, races, and cultures live with tolerance and mutual respect; where peace is built with justice and justice is guided by love; and give us the courage and inspiration to build it.

In this prayer and the work to which it calls us, I am sincerely in Christ,

+Fred