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Protest march inspires bishops to tackle world poverty
By Market-Place
July 29, 2008
PROTEST: Australia's national Anglican church leader, Archbishop, Phillip Aspinall, is interviewed during the Lambeth anti-poverty march. PHOTO: Darrin Davies
SUPPORT: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after the march. PHOTO: Episcopal Life
By Market-Place
July 29, 2008
PROTEST: Australia's national Anglican church leader, Archbishop, Phillip Aspinall, is interviewed during the Lambeth anti-poverty march. PHOTO: Darrin Davies
SUPPORT: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after the march. PHOTO: Episcopal Life
Inspired by being part of a 600-strong Lambeth protest march aimed at tackling world poverty, Australian bishops are already making plans to keep up their campaign when they return home.
Six hundred of the world's Anglican bishops took time out from the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference July 24 to press the case for governments to step up their efforts to meet internationally-agreed anti-poverty targets.
Leading the march, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, delivered a letter to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a warning that the church could not stand by and let promises be broken over the Millennium Development Goals.
The Prime Minister later described the bishops' protest march as "the greatest public demonstration of faith" Britain has ever seen.
The PM also called on bishops to take home with them the message that more needs to be done if the goals are to be achieved.
Australia's national Anglican church leader, Archbishop, Dr Phillip Aspinall, has already unveiled plans to coordinate a group of Australian bishops to write to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to ask for a renewed effort on meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
"We will congratulate Prime Minister Rudd for joining with Gordon Brown in April this year to make a number of commitments that will improve Australia's performance on delivering these goals," Archbishop Aspinall said.
"However we need further action to stop the slippage in progress that may mean these goals will not be achieved."
"We acknowledge and appreciate the Rudd Government's commitment to increase Australia's Overseas Development Aid to 0.5% of Gross National Income by 2015.
"But it falls behind what we need. The UN has called for 0.7% of Gross National Income and we firmly believe that's what we need to make headway."
Archbishop Aspinall said the Australian Anglican Church was also making a contribution to the fight against poverty through its church agencies.
"The Anglican Board of Mission and Anglicord are doing great things in so many countries in health and well-being, provision of infrastructure, education, water and sanitation, transport and climate change," he said, "but together we need to do more."