While the US President George W. Bush has been comparatively reluctant to the G8’s anti-poverty plans, the Evangelical Alliance UK (EAUK) together with 19 key evangelical leaders in Britain have written a formal letter to President Bush, appealing for actions to be taken on world poverty.
The letter was published by the Public Affairs Department of the EAUK and signed by a number of illuminated names such Rev Dr Joel Edwards, Director of the EAUK; Rev Steve Chalke, Founder of Oasis Trust and Faithworks; Rev David Coffey, General Secretary of the Baptist Union; Rev Nicky Gumbel, Alpha Course Chaplain of the UK, Bishop of Liverpool James Jones and among others.
Two weeks ago, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a debt relief deal for the world’s poorest countries after his meeting with President Bush. The G7 finance ministers have already agreed to completely write-off the debt to the World Bank and the African Development Bank for the poorest countries in the world. This is expected to save poor countries up to £1.1 billion a year.
At the same time, the US treasury secretary, John Snow, declared that talks had closed despite G8’s further plans to increase international aid and create fairer trade rules, as suggested by Blair.
Bush and Snow are also expected to remain firmly against proposals for an International Finance Facility (IFF) which aims to generate extra international aid, as put forward by the British Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Evangelicals in the UK wrote to President Bush in the letter, describing that the G8 Summit taking place in July is "a moment for vision and decisive solutions to global problems" as well as a "God-given chance". Therefore, they appeal to President Bush to use his unique position to alleviate world poverty.
"Poverty and injustice, which are addressed throughout the Bible go beyond man-made politics and require us to do what is right in God's eyes," the letter said, with reference to the Bible passage quoted from Matthew 25:40.
They further stated that now "is not the time to rest on what has already been achieved but to build on this work and push forward for a final historic agreement."
