Goal(s): to change the world

By Richelle Thompson, August 30, 2007 [Diocese of Southern Ohio] In the course of an hour-long Eucharist, 1,200 children from around the world die. One child dead from extreme poverty, every three seconds.

In the time it takes most Episcopal congregations to move from opening hymn to final blessing, 60 women die in childbirth.

Those stunning statistics compelled Church of the Good Shepherd, Athens, to restructure its 2007 budget and frame the entire budgeting process in terms of the Millennium Development Goals, which includes ending extreme poverty.

The church’s budget committee examined current outreach ministries and determined whether they fit within the eight goals established by the United Nations. Good Shepherd used the recommended percent of its budget -- 0.7 percent – as a touchstone and ultimately allocated $3,000 in new outreach spending, including support of missionaries in Honduras.

“This year, we’re thinking of trying to double our outreach commitment,” says the Rev. Bill Carroll, rector of Good Shepherd, which averages about 100 on Sunday mornings. “It’s going to be a stretch, but given how many people are dying, it’s worth trying…This is something we should be doing as the body of Christ.”

From ensuring environmental sustainability to promoting gender equality and protecting women, to achieving universal education to combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, the Millennium Development Goals set a course to change the world. These goals were affirmed as a top priority in 2006 by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, and the Diocese of Southern Ohio pledged at its convention in November to make the goals a priority of every individual and congregation, as well as the diocese.

“We have a responsibility to share the blessings God has given us in our lives with the rest of the world,” says Judy Baird, program director of St. Matthew’s, Westerville. “We are so blessed in this country, and there are so many places that are not blessed with the same prosperity.”

In the mid-1980s, St. Matthew’s began a relationship with Liberia, a small country on the west coast of Africa. Abeosah Flemister and her family had fled the civil war in their native Liberia and began attending St. Matthew’s. Her stories of the war-torn country inspired the congregation.

Over the years, they’ve paid the tuition for hundreds of children to attend school. They collect medical and school supplies, and three years ago, they brought a young girl and her mother to the United States for much-needed medical treatment. In 2005, St. Matthew’s established Partners in Ministry in Liberia, and today more than 60 different churches and individuals beyond St. Matthew’s participate.

“We always say we get far more from the people of Liberia than they get from us,” Baird says. “They teach us so much in terms of what it means to depend entirely on Christ. They depend on the church and on Jesus for the basic necessities of life. We in America, with so much prosperity, don’t have the opportunity to be that dependent on God.”

Building a personal relationship is central to the success of an international ministry, says Bill Hedley, a member of Christ Church, Dayton, and of the diocese’s National and World Commission.

He serves on the boards of two groups involved in parish-to-parish ministry to Sierra Leone and to Kenya.

“This type of ministry is a way for us to be connected,” says Hedley. “No matter what happens (within the Anglican Communion) we will continue our ministry there. This is about relationships, and the people of Christ Church, Dayton, in partnership with the people in Sierra Leone and Kenya.”

Paul Rank of St. Timothy’s, Anderson Township, has been active in international ministry for seven years.

“There are two things I’ve come away with,” says Rank, who chairs the National and World Commission and is a board member of El Hogar Ministries, which raises money for a school for needy children in Honduras. “When you see the abject poverty, when you see it, you smell it, you taste it, you understand for the first time what poverty really is. At the same time, I’ve seen a level of commitment, of love, of concern for others that I’ve never seen before. These are people who have virtually nothing yet you can just feel Christ’s love emanating from them.”

Rank dreams of a time when the people of the diocese will rise up together in support of the Millennium Development Goals. He expects his committee will submit a resolution to convention calling for a convocation in 2008 to talk about the Millennium Development Goals and how the diocese can best respond.

“For a church to be viable, whether it’s an urban congregation or a suburban start-up, they need to be dealing outside of their walls,” says Rank, a member of St. Timothy’s, Anderson Township. “They need to be seeing and being Christ outside of their walls. If not, I believe they will collapse in upon themselves … I strongly believe we have the resources of time, talent and treasure to do amazing things.”

-- Richelle Thompson is communications director for the Diocese of Southern Ohio and editor of Interchange.

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