Army of Priests

Creator God,

We acknowledge that we have denied other people’s humanity –  forgotten their names, faces and stories. We have cared more about interest rates than infant and maternal mortality rates. We have exploited the earth, the poor, and each other. But today, we are sorry and choose to do justice.

We have seen the hungry, the thirsty and the naked but we have not fed, quenched or clothed them. We have loved those who are like us and ignored those who need our love the most – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, refugees, our local and global neighbours. But today, we are sorry and choose to love kindness.

We have assumed that we have the answers. We heave assumed that we are in control. We have walked in our own strength and ignored your way. We have confused ourselves, your creatures, with you, our Creator. But today, we choose to walk humbly with you, our God.

We say sorry to the people who have been hurt by the church, and people who trusted us to do something when we did nothing. We say sorry to the world’s poor for consuming more than our fair share. We say sorry to the youth, for the empty cultural values we have passed on. We say sorry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, for the injustice inflicted and the rich cultural history we have not valued. And we say sorry to you, our God, for all your children and all your creation we have abused.

We will turn our “sorry” into action by providing relief to those in need and by relieving those who have too much stuff they don’t need. By educating the powerless, educating those in power and educating ourselves. By confronting injustice in ourselves and in the world, by working for development and by praying for transformation.

Forgive us and make us free from the past so we can change the future. Holy Spirit, work in us and through us. Help us walk in the light of your way, and walk more lightly on your earth.

Amen.

Some people I have talked to have asked for a bit more clarification on what I will be doing whilst freezing in Canberra this weekend, so I have taken some time in this post to flesh it out.

Micah Challenge & The Millennium Development Goals

Micah Challenge is a loose affiliation of organisations, churches, and individuals dedicated to encouraging the Australian government to meet its previously stated commitments to fight global poverty.

In the year 2000 all 192 United Nations member states (including Australia) agreed to achieve, by 2015, a set of targets that has become known as the Millennium Development Goals. These goals are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
   1. Half the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day
   2. Achieve decent employment for women, men, and young people
   3. Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
   1. By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
   1. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
4. Reduce Child Mortality Rate
   1. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
5. Improve maternal health
   1. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
   2. Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
   1. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
   2. Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
   3. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
   1. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
   2. Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
   3. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
   4. By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
8. Develop a global partnership for development
   1. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
   2. Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries
   3. Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States
   4. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long-term

10 years on, it is now painfully clear that we (the citizens of earth) will fail to achieve these goals. Though we have made significant progress on a number of issues:

As part of reaching these goals the rich nations of the world promised to donate 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015. Australia, despite its excellent economic position, has so far provided a plan to donate only 0.5% of GNI.

The difference to get us to 0.7% – $12.1 billion dollars by 2015 – equates to:

• Directly preventing the deaths of 130,000 children
• Directly preventing the deaths of 6,000 mothers
• Saving 85,000 people from AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
• 4 million more children receiving basic education, and 25 million receiving vastly improved education
• Water and sanitation for an additional 510,000 people each year

To put things in perspective, Australia’s defence budget often increases by more than the entire Australian’ aid commitment in any given year.

Voices for Justice

Voices for Justice is an annual event organised by the Micah Challenge designed to hold the Australian government to its own commitments.

This involves concerned volunteers from across Australia travelling to Canberra for 4 days in the freezing winter. The first two days are mainly conferences and workshops for attendees. The final two days are primarily visits with local members of parliament and senators (in the bowels of Parliament House). Events highlighting poverty and our commitments occur throughout; such as a service of repentance.

This will be my first time at Voices for Justice. I must admit that it is a bit daunting as there will be no one in Canberra that I know and I have never done anything like this before. However, I am looking forward to it and know that it will be eye-opening whatever happens.

Notes:

• Both graphs in this report come from “The world we want to see”, 2010. A report that we will be giving to politicians during meetings at Voices for Justice.

From foreign correspondents.

In what experts are describing as the “worst atrocity of our time” 30,0000 children died today from starvation caused by insufficient access to affordable food or easily curable medical aliments such as diarrheal and parasites. This sudden, and unexpected death toll has been explained as being due to continually rising food costs compounding existing economic conditions such as the low value of labour, unequal access to international markets and the enforced privatisation of natural resources.

Whilst rescue efforts get underway, we are being warned that the starvation is set to continue, with at least tomorrow expected to have a similar death toll. Families are being warned to stock canned goods to treat the sudden onset of hunger.

Global Extent of the crisis

Observers describe the hunger attacks as being sporadic, yet unrelenting. It has taken several children from some families yet left others untouched. Confused parents have been left helpless as they desperately tried to gather enough food to protect themselves from the onslaught. Read more…

I have an article published over at Jesus Manifesto. 

Over the last few weeks governments around the world have been clamouring to rush money into failing financial systems in order to stave off the impending “economic crisis”. The American government passed a US$700 billion bill to try to sure up liquidity in credit markets.

It would only cost $82 billion (for 5 years) to meet all of the millennium development goals.

Almost half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day ($730 a year). The “economic crisis” is already here, and it has been here for a long time.
 

Check it out over here.

How much would you earn if all the money in the world was fairly distributed? This would have to take into account the different cost of living in every country and the increased cost of adults over children.

The world economy is worth US$46.66 trillion each year as of 2006. There are 6.7 billion people in the world. This means each person in the world should be earning US$6954 pa.

However, to be fair children cost less to raise than adults. As of 2007 27.4% of the world’s population was younger than 15. Thus if we gave each adult twice as much as each child we would all be entitled to the following:

Adults: US$8058.68

Children: US$4029.34

However, we must also take into account that different countries cost different amounts to live in. Food and shelter costs much more in Zimbabwe and Norway than in Ethiopia and China. So, if we are to be fair, we should adjust the amount given based on the “purchasing power parity” of each country.

Read more…