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Bread Newsletter January 2006

One Spirit. One Will Zero Poverty

BFW President David Beckmann, Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and Sayyid Syeed, Secretary General, Islamic Society of North America, met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss global hunger and poverty. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

As Bread for the World members, each of us is an important part of a nationwide grassroots movement to end hunger in God's world. Addressing the root causes of global hunger takes meaningful action by many national governments, so we succeed by working with other concerned people – both inside and outside Bread for the World – to influence our government to make change happen.

Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters -- One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty. – brings people of faith and conscience together to work for significant additional U.S. assistance to help meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The United States, along with 189 other countries, has made a commitment to achieving the MDGs, which target hunger, extreme poverty, child and maternal mortality, gender inequity, HIV/AIDS and other problems that cause immense human suffering.

At the Group of 8 summit last July, the United States promised to double assistance to Africa and to the developing world by 2010. However, promises of additional aid are often left unfulfilled. To make progress toward the MDGs, Congress should approve significant increases for poverty-focused development assistance in each of the next several years to make sure that the United States fulfills this commitment. These funds provide better nutrition, clean water, health care, basic education and other essentials that enable hungry and poor people to improve their lives. Put simply, the world's 850 undernourished people need these resources.

Since 2000, the United States has doubled its poverty-focused development assistance, and BFW members played a key role in making that happen. Now, this Offering of Letters is Bread for the World's expression of the ONE Campaign. One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty. will advance the ONE Campaign by providing a concrete way for citizens to push for United States policies that help meet the basic needs of our global neighbors. 

That work is already underway. In November, Bread for the World organized a meeting between an interfaith group of senior religious leaders and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the meeting, the group emphasized the urgent needs of hungry and poor people, the realistic plans that have been drawn up for each of the MDGs, and the increasing commitment of our country's people of faith to ending poverty and hunger. Among the 12 religious leaders were three Jews, three Muslims and six Christians.

Also in November, BFW President David Beckmann had an important opportunity to reach out to agriculture officials from around the world. He gave the opening McDougall Lecture, "Building Political Will to End Hunger," at the biannual meeting of governments that belong to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Senior officials of FAO, the U.N. World Food Program and international citizen groups also attended. Beckmann was the first leader of a nonprofit organization invited to give a lecture in this prestigious series. He encouraged the national and international leaders to take concrete steps to build the political will to end hunger – for without action, promises remain just promises. Beckmann also pointed out that since governments have the power to reduce hunger on a large scale, individual officials can make important contributions to progress against hunger.

So can individual members of Bread for the World. See the Background Paper in this issue of Bread for more on why poverty-focused development assistance is needed and what it can accomplish, and then write your representatives in Congress. (It's easy to do—see below!) Thank you for your work to get the One Spirit campaign off to a great start.

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'Can these bones live?'

By Rev. Jim McDonald

Ezekiel's visions were horrible and beautiful.  He saw visions of what the world could be, if only people would open their lives to God's powerful Spirit.  Ezekiel sought a world transformed and perfected by a holy, loving God.  And it made him crazy to see so clearly the world in all its potential, glorious but wasted.

Chapter 37 finds Ezekiel in a valley, brought there by the hand of the Lord.  This valley was full of bones. These bones used to be connected, formed the structure of human bodies. They had been covered with flesh and sinew and skin, received breath and blood, were alive, moving and strong.  But now—dry, brittle, and lifeless—they lay in heaps in the valley.

The vision of the valley of the dry bones was, in Ezekiel's time, a vision of Israel in exile. Uprooted and scattered, their dreams had been shattered, their unity broken.  Ezekiel's vision showed a people oppressed, without hope.  Dry, brittle and lifeless.

In our time, the valley of the dry bones might be a vision of our world.  It is a world made captive to the dynamics of a global economy where massive sums of money move around the globe at the speed of light while two‑thirds of the world's people struggle to eke out a daily existence. Developing countries compete with each other for the crumbs of foreign trade and investment from the industrialized world. The effects of poverty fall disproportionately on women and children.  The valley of the dry bones is a vision of a land where children die of preventable causes—hunger, malaria, poverty, bullets, abuse and neglect—before they have even begun to discover life's great moments,

But as Ezekiel looked out over the desolate valley, there came a question:  Can these bones live?  The question is God's, not Ezekiel's.  Can bones live without the breath of God's Spirit? (Cf., Genesis 2) Without God's Spirit breathing life into us and connecting us to one another, we are nothing more than a heap of dry bones.

On Pentecost, the breath of God's Spirit created a community (Acts 2).  The Holy Spirit poured out by God on that fiery day of Pentecost long ago gave birth to the church of Jesus Christ.  Those who received this Spirit became not simply a collection of powerful individuals, but something much more:  a community of faith engaged in God's reconciling, healing work.

It’s what we pray for once again—a pouring out of the Spirit, to revive our world’s bones.  One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty.

Rev. Jim McDonald is vice president, programs and policy at Bread for the World.

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Bread for the World Elects Board Members

Bread for the World is blessed with a dedicated and active board of directors, whose members volunteer their time and talents as well as support our work financially. The newly elected Board members in 2006 are:

• Judith Andrews, Licensed clinical psychologist, Texas.
• William Epps, Senior pastor, Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles.
• Dan Geisler, BFW activist, Wisconsin.
• Chuck Hagel, U.S. Senator from Nebraska.
•  Sandra Joireman, Wheaton College, Illinois.
• Mark Lancaster, Presbyterian Church (USA).
• Alan Larson, Former Under Secretary of State.
• Mike McCurry, Former White House Press Secretary.
• Matt McHugh, Former U.S. Representative from New York.
• Nancy Miller, Hope College, Michigan.
• David Neff, Editor of Christianity Today.
• Leon Panetta, Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
• John Ricard, Catholic Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee.
• Jim Sundholm, Evangelical Covenant Church.
• Jack Taylor, Community Leader, Vermont.
• Tamera Zivic, World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task-Force.

These 16 people will join 28 returning Board members: David Beckmann, Carol Burmeister, Bob Cahill, John Carr, Thomas Chabolla, Pierre de Vries, Bob Dole, Jo Ann Emerson, Peter England, Jamesina Evans, Jim Hanna, Tim Johnson, June Kim, Jo Anne Lyon, Terry Meehan, David Miner, Donald Payne, Ed Payne, Pat Pelham, Lawrence Reddick, Nancy Rupp, Arthur Simon, Ann Sims, Ervin Sims Jr., Richard Keith Thompson, Karen Vagley, Peter Vander Meulen and Meg Wallhagen.

Officers for 2005 will continue serving in 2006: Chair, Matthew McHugh, former U.S. Representative; Vice Chair, Pat Pelham, BFW activist, Alabama; Secretary, June Kim, United Methodist Committee on Relief; and Treasurer, David Miner, BFW activist, Indiana.

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Got 90 Seconds to Spare?
How to Write a Quick and Effective Letter to Congress

Does it seem difficult or time-consuming to write a letter to your member of Congress? It's not! No need to find the "perfect" wording or worry about your handwriting. Many times, senators and representatives say that one or two letters from Bread for the World members persuaded them to take an action on behalf of hungry people. You can make a difference if your members of Congress simply hear from you.

Here's how to write a brief but strong letter:

• Be specific (see paragraph one in the sample letter below)
• Name an action (paragraph two)
• Give a reason (paragraph three)

That's all there is to it. For timely information on what to request when you write to Congress, please check the Action box on the front page of each issue of Bread or visit our Web site. Thank you!

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The Power of ONE in Seattle

Rev. Mpho Tutu (center) and Rick Steves discuss advocacy with some of the many participants in The Power of ONE conference. BFW photo

"We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voices." On November 19, well-known travel writer and public television host Rick Steves made this point at The Power of ONE: Faith and Global Justice Conference in Seattle, WA.

 More than 500 participants listened to keynote speeches from Steves and Rev. Mpho Tutu, an Episcopal priest and the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. Rev. Tutu described some of the needs among poor people in Africa. She also emphasized the importance of advocacy, urging her audience to pick up their pens and "get writing."

The U.N. Foundation made a grant to help cover conference costs, and six workshops enabled participants to learn more about what is needed to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – particularly cutting hunger in half, fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases, ensuring safe water supplies, achieving gender equality and building global partnerships. Participants also learned about the ONE Campaign, which builds public will for greater U.S. involvement in fighting global poverty.

"We wanted to provide ongoing education and skills for advocacy," said BFW Western Regional Organizer Zelinda Welch. "One of the strengths of the ONE Campaign is that we encourage people to connect with local networks and take action once they've signed the ONE Declaration."

Starting back in January 2005, Bread for the World and the Seattle Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center helped an "unprecedented" coalition of more than 25 organizations to decide on the conference's goals and organize activities to meet them.

"In the spirit of the MDGs themselves, we wanted to work with a variety of groups," Welch said. In addition to Bread for the World, conference sponsors included Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and other members of the ONE coalition.

"I was very happy that a good number of people from both the younger and the older generations attended," said BFW Campus Organizer Erin Luchenbill. "Many participants were representing their social justice organizations, so the conference was also a great opportunity to reach people who are concerned but weren't able to attend."

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