BB NOTE: This Lent forget about the Cross and Jesus' journey to Calvary for the redemption of the world. That's so over. Now, thanks to the fun people at 815 Headquarters, you too can do the Stations of the MDGs. No really! What will the PB think up next! Maybe for Easter we'll roll the rock away and find - Bono!
From
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here:
The Presiding Bishop had declared the first Sunday in Lent to be Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday. To assist parishes mark the occasion, Episcopal Relief and Development has created resources available at http://www.er-d.org/erdsunday. Included among the resources is a special liturgy called “Stations of the MDGs” which is designed to be used during Lent in lieu of the traditional Stations of the Cross service. Also available for order or download is a the 2008 Lenten Devotional is entitled"Seeking to Serve: A Lenten Exploration of the Millennium Development Goals.” The devotional features illustrations and meditations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) contributed by the Rev. Jay Sidebotham, Rector of Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, Illinois, and offers ways for parishioners to help achieve these life-saving goals.
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
Faithfully,
Luke Fodor
Network Coordinator, Office of Church Relations
Episcopal Relief and Development
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017
NOTE: You can also read the official MDG liturgy here.
BB NOTE: This Lent forget about the Cross and Jesus' journey to Calvary for the redemption of the world. That's so over. Now, thanks to the fun people at 815 Headquarters, you too can do the Stations of the MDGs. No really! What will the PB think up next! Maybe for Easter we'll roll the rock away and find - Bono!
9 comments:
What's next? Well now - how about the assumption of the blessed MDG's?
btw enjoying the music
PM
Yes, Yes. How dare TEC push the abortionist / Green political agendas of fighting extreme poverty and disease ... what in the world does that have to do with remembering the suffering and death of our Saviour? What next? Allowing women in public without a male relative?
"Stations" was created by and is being suggested by ER-D, which is not exactly the same as TEC. To say that TEC (or our PB) is pushing use of "Stations" over a traditional Stations of the Cross is misleading.
Padre Wayne
Now, you can do these silly little stations or you could form relationships with people in a Least Developed Nation and ensure that a region has good health care, good education and care in the community. Sometimes it leads to bold request you struggle with for months of a "tipper lorrie" but outside the easy excuse of cutting a check (BTW - you can't write a personal check to for the MDG's they're not set up that way, the "action" item from their website is lobby governments, World Vision and Compassion International have a spot on their site to donate money).
Money is very important, but a relationship is better. In a relationship those you help may see an area of need in your live and work or pray for you in that area. Thus it's not like giving Christmas presents to 'poor inner-city children' feel good that robs the parents of dignity, but a relationship that allow the former that preserve the latter. The road to Hell is paved with what? Sometimes well meaning people created havoc, it is the feedback given in relationship that enables us to truly help.
I'm not cutting a check or lobbying to increase USAID budget, actually there little personal investment in that and really does not love my nieghbor as I'm called. I'm interested in ensuring Deo, Gershom, Esperanza, Nshuti Emmanuel, Francine & all the other in Nyagatare are cared for and empowered to carve out a better life.
Hmmm...maybe I'm wrong, but don't we really utilize the stations of the cross on Good Friday? Can't we follow the PB's suggestions for good lessons for lent and then ALSO use the stations? Why is everything either/or? And in all honesty, isn't our role as good Christians to not only follow God's word but to help protect his creations?
"And in all honesty, isn't our role as good Christians to not only follow God's word but to help protect his creations?
Actually how does any of this to do that?
I don't know - I thought that by encouraging people to focus on areas that need help (such as eradicating extreme hunger) it would get folks to thinking of HOW they can help and therefore encourage them to...okay, get ready for it...HELP GOD'S CHILDREN. Isn't that helping God's creations?
Well, Robin, you still did not answer my question.
Honesty looks like just another "feel good" events in which must gain some sort of "goodie two-shoe" points or something, especially with your defensiveness.
Now exactly how are you "eradicating extreme hunger." Also is that the greatest need to the LDN you are desiring to help?
Get ready for this ... often the assistance we think someone needs is not the help those of God's children need. Thus good intentions go no where or worse cause harm. It's kind of the "we got it, you need it, look out world, here we come" attitude that Ambassador Seiple is so often frustrated by with American Christians. In noble efforts to feed people the UN actually farther destabilized the situation in the '90 with their food program in Somalia by giving away food which devastated a merchant class ... so the intention was good, the thoughts were like you but without relationship the context was not handled well thus farther creating the instability in the first place (BTW - the leading cause of hunger is political instability).
Second bit about the whole MDG program is that it is impersonal and low involvement. Thus it actually short circuits one of the primary way the Lord uses people to shape us. So often we cut a check, thus we think we done our duty. How is lobbying an increase in the USAID budget going to change you? I'm sure Nancy and Tom may appreciate more funds, but does not bring you into a relationship where you can learn what a people in Africa or South America actually needs or how they will impact you or are the tool to expose the darkness in your heart.
It seems that some commentors here are missing the big picture. The Passion is a focus on the Incarnation, and Sacrifice, of the eternal, Living, Word Himself for the sins of the world. The Church, from time immemorial has set aside this time to contemplate that mystery which promises an inner change in each of us which will produce a "new creature (Christian)" who bands together with fellow-Christians to establish mercy, justice, and hope throughout human society. This has proven far more effective than setting aside a few hours to do charity projects, and surely more meaningful (rational, merciful, and sane!) than allowing the murder of tiny children while they are still "out of sight, out of mind," as if this would end poverty in a country where the "leaders" systematically stash all aid money in offshore retirement accounts!
It is about mercy and justice because it is about Jesus Christ. leave out the message of Christ, and we quickly find ourselves in the same mentality (at least!) of the great political "equality" experiments of Cambodia, Romania, and Soviet Russia. That is not God's plan for the world!
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