Sept. 25th

[Mike Kinman]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on where we are with an EGR component to the Sept. 25th "High Level Event" about the MDGs at the U.N.

The reflections document from the Lambeth Conference contained some wonderful language about the MDGs. I commend it to you at http://www.lambethconference.org/reflections/document.cfm. Included in it was this from the bishops:

"The Provinces of the Communion call for a day of prayer and fasting and witness on 25th September 2008 when there is a special session of the United Nations to discuss the Millennium Development Goals."

It seems to me that these are our marching orders -- and it fits perfectly with our grassroots movement! Here's what I've done so far:

*I've had preliminary contact with Mary Getz at the Episcopal Public Policy Network, who says they will be doing a Sept. 25 action. We agreed that a similar cooperative effort to the one with the Lambeth Walk of Witness would be a great thing. I'll be talking with Alex Baumgarten and Mary fairly soon to flesh things out a little bit.

*Using Facebook, I've set up an "event" called "Sept. 25 Day of Prayer, Fasting and Advocacy for the MDGs" that asks individuals to commit on that day to:
 
+pray with special intention for the extreme poor throughout the world.

+skip at least one meal in solidarity with the nearly 1 billion people who go to bed hungry each night.

+participate in an online advocacy action promoting our government's fulfilling its promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

So far 241 people have signed up as attending with 168 maybes. Traffic has been brisk since I set this up Monday evening, and I still have a bunch of people to invite since you can only invite them 100 at a time!

*I have set up a non-facebook way people can commit to these actions at http://tinyurl.com/6cmbsn. To everyone who registers on each site, we'll send prayer resources, information from EPPN on the advocacy action as it comes out and a reminder on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 about the fast. We'll also have a dedicated page on the EGR website with a easy-to-remember name that points to it (I just checked and www.sept25.org is open ... but we could also do mdg925 or something like that. Thoughts? Ideas?).

*I will be contacting the congregations that used the prayer resources last time and we'll be encouraging use of a properly amended version of the Prayers of the People the Sunday before and after Sept. 25. This will also be an excellent time to gather other MDG-related prayer resources and have them available (e.g. St. Francis Church in Macon, GA used the prayers in a special MDG Taize service and we'll be getting an order of service from them).  We'll also broadly encourage even more congregations to join this time.

*I have a call tomorrow with the social justice officer in the Diocese of Ontario and we'll discuss a Canadian advocacy component to this.

Other thoughts? I think we should keep the entry level simple, but we could also consider other options like having people take the money they would have spent on the meal(s) they skipped and giving it to an MDG-related organization. What do you think? Other ideas?

Christ's peace,

Mike+

-- 
The Rev. Mike Kinman
Executive Director, Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation
MKi...@gmail.com + 314.348.6453 
http://www.e4gr.org + http://www.e4gr.blogspot.com

[Ann Finch]

Soujourner's Magazine has uploaded a "Poverty Sunday" toolkit for use
on 9/21. I hadn't heard of "Poverty Sunday" before I received their
email. The guide is available at
<http://www.sojo.net/action/alerts/VOP_poverty-sunday-toolkit.pdf>.
They have also released for download a Vote Out Poverty Voter's Guide
at
<http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?
action=action.VOP&item=VOP_download_form>. From today's email
announcing both:
***begin quote***
What issues are included in the 2008 guide?
• Compassion and economic justice
• Peace and restraint of violence
• A consistent ethic of life
• Racial justice
• Human rights, dignity, and gender justice
• Strengthened families and renewed culture
• Good stewardship of God's creation
Is this guide legal? Yes! We've produced this guide specifically for
local churches and 501(c)(3) organizations. We've conducted an
extensive legal review of it to ensure that your church will not be in
any legal jeopardy because of this issues guide.
***end quote***
I've downloaded the toolkit and will peruse when I get a chance.

On Aug 13, 5:03 pm, Mike Kinman <mkin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I wanted to give you an update on where we are with an EGR component to the Sept. 25th "High Level Event" about the MDGs at the U.N.

> The reflections document from the Lambeth Conference contained some wonderful language about the MDGs. I commend it to you athttp://www.lambethconference.org/reflections/document.cfm. Included in it was this from the bishops:

> "The Provinces of the Communion call for a day of prayer and fasting and witness on 25th September 2008 when there is a special session of the United Nations to discuss the Millennium Development Goals."
> It seems to me that these are our marching orders -- and it fits perfectly with our grassroots movement! Here's what I've done so far:
> *I've had preliminary contact with Mary Getz at the Episcopal Public Policy Network, who says they will be doing a Sept. 25 action. We agreed that a similar cooperative effort to the one with the Lambeth Walk of Witness would be a great thing. I'll be talking with Alex Baumgarten and Mary fairly soon to flesh things out a little bit.
> *Using Facebook, I've set up an "event" called "Sept. 25 Day of Prayer, Fasting and Advocacy for the MDGs" that asks individuals to commit on that day to:
>  
> +pray with special intention for the extreme poor throughout the world.
> +skip at least one meal in solidarity with the nearly 1 billion people who go to bed hungry each night.
> +participate in an online advocacy action promoting our government's fulfilling its promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
> So far 241 people have signed up as attending with 168 maybes. Traffic has been brisk since I set this up Monday evening, and I still have a bunch of people to invite since you can only invite them 100 at a time!

> *I have set up a non-facebook way people can commit to these actions athttp://tinyurl.com/6cmbsn. To everyone who registers on each site, we'll send prayer resources, information from EPPN on the advocacy action as it comes out and a reminder on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 about the fast. We'll also have a dedicated page on the EGR website with a easy-to-remember name that points to it (I just checked andwww.sept25.orgis open ... but we could also do mdg925 or something like that. Thoughts? Ideas?).

> *I will be contacting the congregations that used the prayer resources last time and we'll be encouraging use of a properly amended version of the Prayers of the People the Sunday before and after Sept. 25. This will also be an excellent time to gather other MDG-related prayer resources and have them available (e.g. St. Francis Church in Macon, GA used the prayers in a special MDG Taize service and we'll be getting an order of service from them).  We'll also broadly encourage even more congregations to join this time.
> *I have a call tomorrow with the social justice officer in the Diocese of Ontario and we'll discuss a Canadian advocacy component to this.
> Other thoughts? I think we should keep the entry level simple, but we could also consider other options like having people take the money they would have spent on the meal(s) they skipped and giving it to an MDG-related organization. What do you think? Other ideas?
> Christ's peace,

> Mike+-- The Rev. Mike Kinman Executive Director, Episcopalians for Global Reconcilia...@gmail.com+ 314.348.6453http://www.e4gr.org+http://www.e4gr.blogspot.com