Opportunities to Strengthen Your Faith and Your ECW Branch
"The Millennium Development Goals are about putting feet on our faith. We can’t do everything, but we can do something.”
(ECW president Lisa Towle in her address to Diocesan Convention, January 2006)
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all nations to respond to the main development challenges of the world's poorest countries by 2015. They also provide a key focus for the churches of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church U.S.A.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of ECUSA, defines the Church's first priority as "the kind of deed-based evangelism that shows the world the good news of God's love through the actions of Christians. We cannot speak much in the way of good news to people who are starving or dying of preventable disease or living in slums." She adds that the work of achieving the MDGs is "intimately wrapped up in the promises we make in the baptismal covenant to engage in God's mission."
Goal #1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal #2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal #3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal #4: Reduce child mortality by 2015
Goal #5: Improve maternal health
Goal #6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal #7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal #8: Develop a global partnership for development
