MDG Outcomes

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On the Role of American Religious Communities in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: A Consultation -- June 8, 2005

Getting from Here to There: Proposed Action Steps

Share Info and Ideas! Synergize!

Create an email list [and RSS news feed] to share info about the MDGs and about actions that religious communities can take in support of the MDGs, working separately or together. Recipients of this elist were encouraged to share this info with their own religious communities via email newsletters and/or websites. [The consultation participants agreed that their email addresses should be placed on such a list.]
Create a website for disseminating information on the MDGs and MDG-support activities for the religious and inter-religious groups.
Create an inter-religious working group to discern and develop synergies that inter-religious coordination and cooperation on behalf of the MDGs might yield.

Coordinate! Take A Public Stand Together! [Inter-denominationally &/or inter-religiously]

Set a date for a national day of religious and inter-religious prayer, action and advocacy on behalf of the MDGs. [See info below re Sojourners’ current planning]
Develop an inter-religious consensus statement on behalf of the MDGs – or common affirmations or tenets -- that different faith communities [or those represented here] could endorse in some manner. Place it on-line so individuals can sign it as well.
Develop intra-religious consensus statements (and engage in joint-public education campaigns) on behalf of the MDGs across sectarian or denominational lines. [e.g. a joint statement by representatives of all Jewish denominations]
Urge your own denominational synod, assembly, association, etc. to pass a resolution endorsing MDGs and 0.7%.
Develop and fund a high profile coordinated media campaign for the MDGs with an inter-religious consensus statement of support at its core.
Develop a religiously based civic action campaign – emphasizing letters, emails and calls to congress and white house, candle-light vigils, fasts.

Preach It!

Write sermons on behalf of the MDGs – and share them with other religious leaders via TMI’s Sermons Project (see TMI below).
Act politically! For example, bombard Congress with postcards around particular pending legislation re MDGs, malaria, etc.
Host dinners to build support for MDGs (see TMI below).

Teach It!

Develop study-guides grounding support for the MDGs in your own tradition.
Plan day-long MDG education programs for your own congregation(s) or denomination.
Develop graded school curricula to educate American students about the developing world and about the MDGs. Educate and mobilize students – with focus on the practical feasibility of the goals… Make support for MDG-related projects part of curriculum or extra-curricular focus.
Develop inter-religious curricula for teaching about the MDGs from various religious perspectives.
Develop a face-to-face, people-to-people program to bring young people together from across the country to meet up with young people from the developing world, and to follow this up with trips to the developing countries as well.
Enlist American academics to focus on MDG-related development issues.
Educate and advocate on behalf of the MDGs in accessible “languages” that speak to people where they are.
Develop theological papers that address relevant religious issues that might stand in the way of your denomination’s support for the MDGs (e.g. eschatological views, or tensions between what is owed to near and far neighbors).
Develop a sophisticated public education strategy that will enable religious Americans to talk and solidarize across the lines that divide us.

Link It!

Link support for the MDGs to existing issue-advocacy movements, e.g., link existing environmental groups to the MDGs.
Mobilize and work with existing college groups on behalf of the MDGs.

Info Sharing:

The Millennium Initiative (TMI) Sponsoring whole range of activities focused on building American political will on behalf of the MDGs – including Dinner Projects and Sermons Project [For more info go to: www.browdecommunications.com or contact Beth Browde (bbrowde@earthlink.com)]
A Summer of Prayer and Advocacy to Halve Poverty and thus achieve the MDGs. Sponsored by Sojourners and Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. Will take place September 11-16, 2005 at churches near US embassy and at the UN. 3 days of fasting and prayer will take place in advance. A Christian focused effort but with a multifaith engagement at UN with churches and witnessing… [contact Kritin Clark (kmclark2@gmail.com)]
Sojourners-sponsored National Day of Religious Mobilization (September 12^th). [contact Kritin Clark (kmclark2@gmail.com)]
University of Birmingham (UK) 5 year project on role of faith communities in advancing MDGs [contact Josef Boehle (j.boehle@bham.ac.uk)]
Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, a UN-Gov –Civil Society tripartite meeting to be held on June 22, 2005 on role of religion in creating culture of peace. www.interfaithconference.com Contact: Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace Tripartite Conference Secretariat Office UNESCO, Two UN Plaza, Room 900 New York, NY 10017 Fax 212-963-8014 Email: unescony@un.org