8:22am Wednesday 30th July 2008
By John Inge
ON July 24 I was one of more than 600 bishops from more than 130 countries who, together with their spouses and leaders of other Christian denominations and faiths, marched down Whitehall.
The Prime Minister, who met us at its conclusion, described the march as “One of the greatest public demonstrations of faith that this great city has ever seen.”
And so it should have been because we were marching for justice.
We had come together for the Lambeth Conference, the gathering of Anglican bishops which takes place in Canterbury every 10 years, and went to London in support of the Millennium Development Goals, whose aim is to halve world poverty by 2015.
These goals were agreed by governments around the world in the millennium year but, sadly, their achievement has slipped and, at the present rate, they will be met in 100 years rather than seven.
We marched to stand up for the 10 million children in this world who, because of our failure to act collectively, will die unnecessarily from avoidable deaths such as tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria and malaria – all diseases we know we have it in our power to eradicate.
We marched to speak up for the 77 million children who cannot go to school because they have no school to go to.
We marched for the 100 million people who shamefully and disgracefully face a summer of starvation and an autumn of famine – all because we cannot yet organise and grow the food we need to meet the needs of the hungry people of this world.
The Archbishop of Canterbury handed the Prime Minister a letter asking him to press for our own and other governments to “keep the promise” they had made to the poor.
Christians have believed for 2,000 years that when one part of the body suffers everyone suffers and we should not rest while there is such terrible and unnecessary suffering across the globe.
We believe that human beings are made in the image of God, but we share a vision of a world in which the dignity of all people is respected with those of other faiths and of none.
It is a vision which we should do everything in our power to achieve and press the leaders of the world to make a priority.
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