Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

A global campaign to mobilise millions of Christians in 100 countries to press their governments to halve poverty by 2015, was launched at the United Nations on Friday 15 October by the Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of Southern Africa, The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane.

Archbishop Ndungane urged churches around the world to take a lead in putting pressure on governments to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty, declaring: "How can we claim to follow Jesus if we are not prepared to work to achieve his gospel good news for the poor?"

Archbishop Ndungane, successor to the Most Revd Desmond Tutu and once a political prisoner along with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, was launching Micah Challenge, which aims to mobilise Christians to lobby, campaign and pray for governments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Addressing an audience of church leaders from around the world, the Archbishop stated, "Christians can play a vital role in helping global leaders meet their commitments. When Christians work with one another, united across nationalities and races, across rich and poor, across men, women and children, we have an enormously powerful and influential voice. We must speak loud and clear."

Micah Challenge is spearheaded by the World Evangelical Alliance, which represents three million local churches in 111 countries, and a network of 260 Christian relief and development agencies. Already national Micah Challenge campaigns are being formed in the UK, Peru, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India and Zambia. As a first step, Christians around the world are being asked to sign an on-line commitment & petition at www.micahchallenge.org

Describing poverty as 'evil' and the Millennium Development Goals as the most 'ambitious commitment the world has ever made to combating poverty', The Archbishop stated "There is no doubt that the world can afford to do all that is necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals. But there is a large question mark against whether or not we have the will power...Governments and business can say the words, but they need all the encouragement, all the pressure, that we can give, to deliver the goods."

He added: "They need to hear that their citizens truly want them to take the hard steps that are required, so we may live in a world where there is some for all, not all for some. For it is unacceptable that in a world of surplus, 800 million people go hungry every day."

Archbishop Ndungane, who holds a portfolio for global poverty within Anglicanism, described Micah Challenge as a significant new movement through which global leaders could be challenged to play their part in 'securing a more just and merciful world.'