What Can My Church Do?

Supporting the MDGs can be part of the Church's broader response to the challenges of global poverty. Here are some suggestions for how your church might get involved:

• Pray. Bringing our concerns about global poverty before God is an essential part of our Christian response.
  • Micah Challenge sends out a weekly prayer email, which offers a statistic related to the MDGs as a particular point for prayer and reflection. Why not use that as a part of your weekly prayers in church? Or, if you already use another agency's prayer diary, try to link the specific projects or people that you are asked to pray for to action on the MDGs.
  • A special service can be a good way of really highlighting global poverty, our response to it generally, and the need to pray and campaign for implementation of the MDGs. Micah Challenge has special Sundays (the last was on 20 May) with liturgical materials prepared for them -- you can use these at other times, too! This October 17, too, there will be another chance to "stand up against poverty" -- could you perhaps schedule a service on that day (a Wednesday) or on the following Sunday? Or check out the "U2charist" and other suggestions in our "praying and preaching" website.

• Study and Reflect together. There are many fine Lent courses, Bible studies and books that deal with the Christian response to global poverty, some of which include material about the Millennium Development Goals. Why not try one with your house group? Some suggestions include:
  • Act Justly, from Christian Aid
  • reflections from the worship material for Live Simply
  • "What does the Bible say about poverty" from Methodist Relief and Development Fund
  • the Micah Challenge reflections or the "Half-Time" reflections originally written to cover the seven weeks from Pentecost 2007 to 07/07/07.
  • Edward Newell and Sabina Alkire's What Can One Person Do? (which focuses precisely on the Christian response to poverty through the MDGs)
  • Graham Gordon's "What If You Got Involved? Taking a Stand against Social Injustice"
  • Steve de Gruchy "Introducing the United Nations Millennium Declaration"

• Campaign alongside other Christians worldwide by joining the Micah Challenge and supporting GCAP and the UN Millennium Campaign.
  • To see how your church can join the Micah Challenge, go to Micah UK's "how to join" page.
  • To see what the UK GCAP coalition is doing and to get involved, go to the page for "Your Voice Against Poverty"
  • To see the latest news on the UN Millennium Campaign and 2007's "Stand Up and Speak Out!" go to the webpage for the Millennium Campaign.

• Adopt a goal, and make research, prayer and action on it part of your church's mission.
  • One city church went through the goals and felt particularly called to respond to #2 -- universal primary education. They decided to donate to a church agency that helps buy school uniforms and supplies for girls. It's a practical contribution to making the goals happen. The combination of prayer, research, advocacy and practical action is a powerful one!

• Raise awareness in imaginative ways! Fran Chandler, the Anglican World Development Adviser for Kensington, has done prayer stations and flower festival displays on MDG-related themes. . . . a great way to reach people who might not otherwise become involved. The Diocese of Leicester is planning a special performance of the Poverty Requiem on 17 October. What could you do?