United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will address a group of prominent evangelical Christian leaders in Arlington in the US next week at a Global Leaders Dinner being held to educate and inform evangelical opinion leaders about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The dinner will also stress the significance of this "critical moment in history for making a lasting impact on poverty", according to the US division of Micah Challenge, the international movement of Christians lobbying their governments to ensure the MDGs are met by the target date of 2015.
Convened by the National Association of Evangelicals and Micah Challenge USA, the event will bring together top evangelical leaders from the United States and the Global South.
In addition to the historic dinner with Ki-Moon, leaders will meet for the daylong Global Leaders Forum on Friday 12 October, to discuss various issues including poverty, hunger, HIV/Aids, trafficking, bioethics, human rights, creation care, torture and peacemaking.
"Evangelicals are the 'new internationalists' with a record of legislative successes and expect to shape US foreign policy in ways unimaginable even a year ago. What remains to be seen is whether we'll rise to the challenge of partnership being articulated by our brothers and sisters in the Global South," said Richard Cizik, Vice President of Governmental Affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals.
"The Millennium Development Goals echo the calls of the biblical prophets to care for the poor and defend the weak. These calls to justice and compassion are absolutely integral to the Gospel and the Church's mission in the world," said Peter VanderMeulen, Co-Chair, Micah Challenge USA.
"In obedience to the prophet Micah's call to 'do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God' (Micah 6: 8), American evangelical leaders at this gathering intend to listen carefully to the Secretary General and then have significant, authentic conversations not just among ourselves as Americans but with key evangelical Christian leaders from around the world."
Additional key sponsors for the event include, among others, Bread for the World, World Relief, Frontiers, the Evangelical Environmental Network and the UN Millennium Campaign.
