Church leaders get behind campaign to remember worlds poor

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are among the church leaders backing a new campaign to inspire people to live lives that remember the poor.

The ‘What’s Your Promise?’ campaign has been launched by Micah Challenge ahead of its action day on October 10, when it is hoping to mobilise 100 million Christians worldwide in praying for an end to poverty and at least 10 million in making personal pledges to speak out on behalf of the poor.

The day of action is being held to remind world leaders of their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving global poverty by 2015.

Micah Challenge UK Director Andy Clasper said, “We are asking people to make a promise to live in a way that remembers those in poverty and to start by making a promise in one area of their life.

“I have been encouraged that even those who have been involved with these issues for many years are thinking and living differently as a result of making their promise.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, encouraged people to support the Micah Challenge campaign.

“When God tells us to remember the poor he is not simply asking us to give them a thought from time to time. Remembrance in the Bible is a very real and active thing,” he said.

“So in this crucial year when the Millennium Development Goals are very much on our minds, when we need to think and pray harder than ever to see what can be achieved by 2015, our remembrance must be a renewal of relationship.”

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has got behind the latest Micah Challenge campaign by promising to launch a charity that will serve impoverished communities worldwide under the name of ACTS435.

He said: “It is important that churches help those in need in practical ways.”

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, has committed to making the Millennium Development Goals the touchstone of his concern for those trapped in poverty, while singer and head of the Christian Socialist Movement, Andy Flannagan, committed to striving for change in the global economic system.

Hundreds more Christians have responded to the campaign with new promises. Some of these include commitments to waste less, think about the impact of products on the poor, to campaign and educate others, to give more time and money to eradicating poverty, reducing carbon footprints, and to praying more.

The campaign has been welcomed by Labour MP for East Ham Stephen Timms, who praised UK churches for their consistent call to the Government to lead the way in tackling global poverty.

He said: “Government has been profoundly influenced – in fact, Britain’s whole political culture has been uplifted because so many individual Christians have gone out of their way to take part in campaigning.”