Micah Challenge Joins London Rally to Highlight G8 Pledges

Thousands joined 'The World Can't Wait' rally at the River Thames in London Saturday, calling on world leaders attending the G8 summit next week in Germany to take decisive action against poverty and climate catastrophe.

|PIC1|Christian campaigners kicked off the rally with a Blow the Whistle Worship Service, organised by Micah Challenge UK, at the Methodist Central Hall in central London, where popular recording artist Tim Hughes led worship.

The Micah Challenge UK, a global campaign to mobilise Christians against poverty, has this year been driving forward its 'Blow the Whistle' campaign, which seeks to check the work by the global community towards eradicating worldwide poverty, and in particular to keep the UK Government moving on its promises to the poor.

Special guest speakers attended the service, including representatives of some of the world's poorest nations as well as the head of Tearfund, Matthew Frost, and the chief executive of World Vision, Charles Badenoch.

Following the service, supporters walked to the banks of the River Thames, where they blew their Micah Challenge whistles with thousands others at 2.30pm. In addition to whistles, alarm clocks and mobile phones were set off, calling on the Government to honour its commitments.

An estimated 10,000 campaigners attended the rally.

Rev Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, a key Micah partner, said: "Christians coming together to demonstrate for the poor shows world leaders the depth of our concern and is also a good witness to people in Britain that the church cares about international poverty."

On 20 May, MPs, top Christian musicians and churches across the UK all took part in events to mark Blow the Whistle Sunday. At the last count 7,819 Blow the Whistle postcards had been sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair, urging him to ensure that the promises the UK Government made to the poor when it signed the MDGs are kept.

Speaking at St Mark's Church in Kennington on Blow the Whistle Sunday, Labour MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey said: "The Millennium Development Goals are clearly important and the more pressure that is put on governments all over the world the more chance there is that action will be taken to make them happen by 2015."

Blow the Whistle is focussing on five key areas - Aids treatment, water and sanitation, climate change, education and trade justice. The Micah Challenge UK coalition includes some of the most influential and active Christian organisations such as the Shaftesbury Society, the Evangelical Alliance, HTB/Alpha International, Christian Today, Tearfund, World Vision and Faithworks.