Lutherans urged to challenge unjust food structures

|PIC1|The quest for daily bread is not only an ethical, moral and theological question but also a spiritual challenge for the worldwide Lutheran Church, says its leader the Rev Dr Ishmael Noko.

Writing in the foreword to an LWF publication on the global food crisis, he said the Lord’s Prayer to “Give us this day our daily bread” had become a lament for the millions of people going hungry each day.

Dr Noko spoke of the “deep gulf between God’s wish – dare we say, God’s command – that all people have enough food to sustain happy, hopeful, fulfilling lives, and the sad reality that most of the world’s people do not have enough to eat”.

He asked Lutherans: “Do we have the courage to turn the recitation of Jesus’ prayer into acts of justice that challenge the current powers and entities that thrive on creating profit-orientated systems, all for the short-term gain of but a few?”

The publication has been issued ahead of the Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in July 2010, which will meet under the theme of “Give us today our daily bread”.

The publication also includes liturgical resources for the LWF Sunday and guidance for prayer and action on food security.

Dr Noko said: “Let us turn Jesus’ prayer from a lament into a hopeful declaration for acts of justice in solidarity with the most vulnerable in our communities.”