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[Back to index of July/August 2007 articles] People of faith pledge to help end hunger By Lucy Chumbley From the steps of Washington National Cathedral, the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, delivered a message to the people gathered on the grass. “All scriptures tell us that you cannot talk to God and walk away from a hungry person,” he said. “We need to set up social structures that make it possible for everyone to eat – in this country and around the world.” Beckmann’s words were echoed and enlarged by other faith leaders during the Second Interfaith Convocation on Hunger, which began outside the cathedral on June 11 with music and messages and continued inside with an interfaith worship service. “It is a great journey, but it is just the beginning,” said Bishop John Bryson Chane, welcoming 800 participants, many of whom were attending The Gathering 2007, a four-day conference organized by Bread for the World, a Christian movement against hunger and poverty. “Welcome, God bless you, and let’s get on with the work at hand.” The work, “ending hunger in our time,” is an awesomely ambitious undertaking, Beckmann said. So he urged people to begin with a small step: lobbying for changes to the 2007 Farm Bill to ensure the Food Stamp Program it funds will not suffer. (For more information about the Farm Bill and suggestions on how to take action, visit www.bread.org). Beckmann also invited participants to fill out postcards attached to their service leaflets and “make a prayerful commitment to do something differently” in their own lives. The cards, which will be mailed back to the participants later this year to remind them of their promises, were gathered up and blessed during the service. Bishop Lawrence L. Reddick III, of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, stressed the importance of even small gifts and efforts in fighting the war on want. “When I didn’t have $100, I didn’t give, because in my mind a small gift wasn’t good enough,” he said. But that changed when, entrusted with a $50 gift from a parish secretary “for someone’s education,” he traveled to Nigeria and met Dorothy, a 20-year-old waitress who had not been able to continue her education because her family’s savings had been used up when her mother became ill. The accounting course she had hoped to attend cost 4,000 Naira, and “on that very day, the Nigerian Naira was trading N80 to the dollar,” Reddick said. When he returned the following year, Dorothy was still in school, he said, pointing out that “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” Regional organizer Suzanne Berman of Bread for the World said she found her calling when she stood outside the gates of a former concentration camp liberated by allied and American forces during World War II. “This America, a country of heroes, can rise again,” she said. “We can be the next ‘Greatest Generation,’ but this time we can free the world from the shackles of poverty.” Sacred texts from the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, were read, chanted and sung during the service, and the Rev. William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, preached a sermon on the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31). In the Gospel account, the rich man feasts while Lazarus, a beggar covered with sores, sits outside his gates hoping for crumbs. The rich man is sent to Hades after his death and calls out to Abraham to send Lazarus, who is with the angels, to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. Abraham refuses his request, and also his appeal to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers of their fate, saying they have already been warned by Moses and the prophets. Describing the “great chasm” between the rich man and Lazarus, Shaw asked, “How in the world can these two worlds meet? How do they get side by side as in the story here? And the answer is, only with great effort.” He called on people to “bring the poor in this country and around the world to the attention of people and places of plenty,” as Lazarus was brought to the rich man. “Who will bring the poor to Congress?” he asked. “Who will bring the poor to the attention of the faith community? … What will it take to cause us to hear what we ought to hear and see what we ought to see and do what we ought to do?” Following Shaw’s sermon, participants were invited to stand and commit themselves to taking action to eradicate hunger in the nation and world. As hundreds rose to their feet, Shaw, standing before a display of the Earth’s abundance – brimming straw baskets of ripe fruit and vegetables – asked members of the assembly if they would support and uphold these commitments. “We will,” 800 voices responded. “This is about action on God’s words,” Beckmann said. “It’s about moving on from here to build the movement we need in this country to overcome hunger and poverty.” “There’s a lot to do,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, “and we’re being called by the holiest voice that each of us listens to to step up to the task.” [Back to index of July/August 2007 articles]
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