Email Barack Obama your hopes for change

President Obama enters office with a world of expectation on his shoulders. Help him meet these hopes by offering him some advice.

From Gaza to global warming, the United States is the key player on just about every burning global issue. Decisions made in the White House affect us all.

So, now Christian Aid have a new ‘decider’, take this opportunity to pass on our hopes for change.

Christian Aid have whittled thirr wishlist down to three: the Middle East, climate change and tax havens.

Write down your own message, and Christian Aid will add it to theirs and send it straight to Mr Obama.

How should Obama juggle domestic issues with those of America's poorer neighbours around the globe? Should the War on Terror give way to the War on Poverty?

Write it down, and mail them off - and Christian Aid will publish a few on their website.

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/dosomething/email-barack-obama.aspx

Hope for Planet Earth Tour

Leading experts from the John Ray Initiative will be exploring the science behind climate change and dispelling the associated myths. Tearfund will be looking at the effects on the poor and A Rocha will be examining the effects on our planet. Share Jesus International is investigating why this topic should be important to Christians. The tour aims to educate, equip and empower you to take action.
Thursday 26th February, Brunswick Methodist Church
Contributors including scientists Sir John Houghton and Dr Martin Hodson, Rev. Dave Bookless, National Director of A Rocha UK, Matthew Frost, Chief Executive of Tearfund and Andy Frost, Director of SJI
Tickets here http://www.hopeforplanetearth.co.uk/

Climate concerned? Join the Carbon Fast

Fast > verb: abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as a religious observance.

Carbon Fast > noun: fast and pray with Tearfund to cut your carbon use and help protect poor people from climate change.

We’re on a mission this Lent not only to add Carbon Fast to your vocabulary but to get you putting these two little words into practice as well.

Each day from Wednesday 25 February until Saturday 11 April, we have daily actions to help you reduce your carbon footprint.

For example, why not give up keeping electrical appliances on standby? Eight per cent of the electricity we consume in our homes is by appliances we’re not even using, wasting money as well as causing emissions.

Junk the mail

Or de-register from receiving junk mail. Four billion direct mail items are sent annually, with a third going unread.

All you need to do to join the Carbon Fast is sign up to receive a daily email. Easy. Together the global church can make a big difference.

But don’t just take our word for how good the Carbon Fast is; here’s an endorsement from Marion de Quidt from Guildford, one of thousands who took part in last year’s.

Marion said, ‘The Carbon Fast is much more interesting and relevant than other things we have done for Lent before. The ideas were engaging, simple, practical and easy to achieve, giving a sense of success and contribution.’

Creation care

By taking part in our actions you’ll undoubtedly save yourself money but vitally, you’ll also be helping to address an injustice, namely that desperately poor communities in developing countries who do the least polluting damage are hit hardest by climate change.

You’ll also be sending a message on behalf of the global church that we care about creation.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Revd. James Jones, who came up with the Carbon Fast idea, said, `As we pray daily for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is done in heaven, the Carbon Fast is a practical step towards a fairer world, a sustainable planet and the earthing of heaven.’

Building on 2008, this year the Carbon Fast is going global. Our colleagues at TEAR Australia will be asking the local church down under to change its lifestyle and to lobby the government there to do more.

Tearfund website

Politicians, faith leaders to consider role of Scripture in tackling poverty

Politicians and faith leaders will be considering the role of Scripture in fighting poverty at the forthcoming 'Good News to the Poor' reception.

Weeks ahead of the G20 gathering of global leaders in London, the recently launched Poverty and Justice Bible will take centre-stage at the reception on 10 February, organised by Bible Society and the Treasury office.

Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, will be speaking as well as Bible Society’s Chief Executive James Catford.

"At the G20, issues such as trade justice, poverty, health inequalities, and conflicts, will be discussed in the context of the developing global recession," said Dave Landrum, Bible Society’s Parliamentary Officer and organiser of Good News to the Poor.

"Our aim is to show the enduring role of the Bible in government, and in addressing these important issues," he added.

Good News to the Poor is part of Bible Society’s commitment to making the Bible heard worldwide.

Also joining in discussions are faith leaders, MPs, peers, heads of charities and aid organisation, NGOs and policy community leaders. Government ministers of departments responsible for poverty and justice issues have also been invited.

Christian Today 28/01/09

ACT

With God, we can make a difference, if we don't act then who will?

By following Jesus' example we identify with those in need, and act.

Romand 12: 1-2 The Message "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Here's something we can do from Stop the Traffik

ACT/s: WHEN PEOPLE ACT, THINGS CHANGE

ACT/s (Active Communities against Trafficking in the sex industry) groups allow people of all ages, ethnicities and genders to understand sex trafficking, how it affects your local community and help you proactively respond to STOP THE TRAFFIK. You'll be able to impact trafficking happening in your area by:

• Investigating whether trafficking is already happening
• Getting your community aware of the signs of people trafficking
• Exploring the journey of a trafficked person
• Writing to your local council

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/getinvolved/act/acts.aspx

Prayer for Justice

From Micah Challenge India

God of mercy, justice and love,

In humility and led by your Spirit, as individuals, families and churches, we want to model a lifestyle of justice in our homes, workplaces and communities.

We pray for churches to be involved in actions of service and justice so that your values are proclaimed in our nation.

We pray that churches and Christian networks would join in challenging oppression of the poor and speak the truth with a gentle manner.

We pray that we would stand together and cry for justice. We pray that the governments of this world would hear our cry and delay no more in acting to end poverty.

We want to establish your justice and righteousness on earth.

Give us wisdom, grace and persistence dear Lord.

Amen

Justice is not God’s program. Justice is His character

Reflection from India (Micah Challenge)
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
- Isaiah 30.18
In India, justice is not a natural expectation of godliness, holiness is. Holy men and women of God are those who have withdrawn from the world to attain a peaceful state of existence in the presence of God alone! This attitude seems not uncommon, even among Christians. It amuses me that I am introduced as ‘a Man of God’ when invited to teach the Word, and as a Development Thinker or Worker’ when involved in justice issues. Such a dichotomy is definitely not Biblical. The God of the Bible is known as the God of justice (Isaiah 30:18). The Bible says, ‘But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness’ (Isaiah 5:16). God reveals His holiness in his commitment to justice and righteousness. We are good at running programs. But justice is not God’s program. Justice is His character. When justice is only a program, we can choose either to do it or not. But if justice is our character we will have no choice. It will be demonstrated in our life, in our actions and our priorities.
C.B Samuel, Oxford Centre for Leadership Studies

With God we can make a difference

Have you watched the news recently? Faces showing despair and poverty in Zimbabwe, grieving relatives in Gaza. Do you ache and wonder where is God in the midst of this? What can I do that will make the slightest difference? Who am I to have an impact?
God is for the poor and the marginalised. Luke 4
Jesus quotes Isaiah
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me.
He has anointed me
to tell the good news to poor people.
He has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners.
He has sent me so that the blind will see again.
He wants me to free those who are beaten down"
Jesus is the good news for the poor, he doesn't just preach it, he IS it. Just as the Spirit of the Lord is on Jesus, that same Spirit empowers us to be the body of Christ here and now for the common good.

Matthew 25: 35-40

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

Lets's do it

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house

"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire even in scorched places.¹

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time. You know, the only time Jesus Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor. "As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." [I] believe that's Matthew 25:40."

Bono National Prayer breakfast 2nd February 2006

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/bononationalprayerbreakfast.htm

News

• March 3rd Prayer Meeting about Justice and Mercy issues
• March 8th David Golding HBC morning service
• Recommended reading Jim Wallis; 7 ways to change the World