Lent, Soup, and the Millennium Development Goals

My parish church,
St. Andrew’s, Saratoga, has been offering an inspiring series
of Wednesday night soup suppers during this Lenten season. Please come join us for the final Wednesday Soup Supper, on 19 March. We will
be watching the excellent feature film

The Girl in the Café.

I have attended all but one of the series. Even though some of the topics
have been disturbing to hear about, the large room has been almost
full each time. We gather in the Center at 6 pm, collect our soup,
bread, water, and cookies, then sit down at round tables to talk.
After about half an hour of visiting, we watch a
Bullfrog Life film and hear a
speaker.

The topic of each evening has been one or more of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Millennium Development Goals are a framework world leaders have agreed upon to reduce poverty and improve lives. These eight goals offer a vision of what we want to achieve to address the challenges facing the world today. The national
Episcopal Church and our
own Diocese of El Camino Real have
each endorsed the MDGs. I wrote about the MDGs in my
January 26, 2007 blog entry. The eight goals are:

1. Eliminate Extreme Poverty
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainablity
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

In addition to the Wednesday Soup Suppers, each Sunday sermon during
this Lenten season has been structured around the MDGs. St Andrew’s has
also used the MDG Litany from the Bread of Life as part of the Sunday
service. Linda Rogers created a new MDG banner and there is a table
display of MDG information from Episcopal
Relief and Development (ERD) on colorful cloth from Africa.

Here is what we have heard so far at St. Andrew’s Wednesday Soup Suppers:

• UNCSW 2005 – Melita Thorpe spoke on her experience as an affiliate representative to the United Nations 49th Session and the Millennium Development Goals. Melita is a member of the CSW (Commission on the Status of Women). She has made 17 trips to Africa and carrying medical supplies, visiting the AIDS ward in the Nairobi hospital, talking to women about their situation in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi.
• Jean Hankey spoke on MDG Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Goal 2 – Achieve universal primary education; and Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women. Jean is co-chair of the Women Helping Women group at St. Andrews. The group brought handmade note cards to sell as a fund raiser.
• Dr. John Watson-Williams & Melita Thorpe spoke on Goal 4 – Reduce Child mortality & Goal 5 – Improve maternal health. John spoke from his experience treating Malaria in Africa. He also presented research data about the effect of Malaria on maternal health.
• Dr. John Watson-Williams & Jean-Claude Gigot spoke on Goal 6 – combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other preventable disease. Jean-Claude spoke of his
  experiences working to combat disease in Cote d’Ivoire.
• Bruce Friesen spoke on Goal 7 – Ensure environmental sustainability & Goal 8 – Develop a global partnership for development.
  
  Bishops Blend Coffee was served and everyone was sent home with a sample. ERD is offering Bishops Blend, Pura Vida’s premium line of Certified Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown coffees from Central America and Indonesia. Purchases of Bishops Blend helps ERD meet needs worldwide.

Melita wrote in her notes on these suppers: “It is hoped that by sharing our hopes and concerns for a world in which our Christian faith calls us to action, we helped our congregation engage in these issues in our own context as well as globally. Together, we can work toward creating a world where all God’s people may flourish. Katy, I cannot speak for the others but I am happy to help facilitate a program on the MDG’s with any congregation.”