Ministries and Resources
New Hope Campaign
Our New Hope program is Bethlehem’s extra mile along the MDG journey
(this photo courtesy of Gary Clark)By Bishop Paul V. Marshall
The MDGs will not solve all the problems of the world, but they go a long way towards making life sustainable for all. The price is amazingly low– .07% of GNP.
Our churches and dioceses have been asked to set aside a minimum of .07% of income to join the MDG effort. With our New Hope program we have chosen to go the extra mile, several extra miles in fact, in a campaign to raise $3.6 million for the destitute in Sudan and in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Each phase of our New Hope work allows those we assist to control their own destinies.
In Sudan, we are responding to the request of the diocese of Kajo-Keji for assistance in building the educational and organizational centers that will allow them to provide for their own future.
Through revolving“micro-finance” funds, enterprising individuals, largely women, will be able to make a new start in a war-torn country.
Similarly, the money for use at home is to allow grants for the expansion of local projects and also to allow parishes such as yours to have seed money for new initiatives in serving those in need.
In March the Presiding Bishop told me how happy she was to hear about New Hope, and the delight she takes in endorsing and commending it to you.
In September, every member of the diocese will be given the opportunity to join this work with glad hearts.
We are, rightly, to some degree concerned about what emerged in the 1960s as “The Anglican Communion.” Is it a fellowship? Is it a church? Who decides?
Those are questions over whose answers you and I have almost no influence at all. What we have in the New Hope Campaign, especially as it relates to Sudan, is the opportunity to enact the Anglican Communion as we work together with fellow believers for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Those who have visited Kajo-Keji know that their worship forms and church life vary from ours to a great degree. Our cultures also have very little in common, although this will change in the next generations. What we do have in common is our Lord, our faith, and our baptism into the life of discipleship. The same yet different.
Even though as a diocese we don’t get to keep the money, there is something in this campaign for us.
Personally, I have come to no greater opportunity in my life to give selflessly, to surrender significant resources in service to God. For me, making that commitment means that I am going to have to retire a little bit later than I had planned. For others of you, the sacrifice may also have consequences. It may mean keeping a car a year longer or not taking that dream vacation just yet.
We are, in short, not taking a collection here. We are inviting ourselves to sacrifice, to lose a bit of our substance.
But what we are offered in no uncertain terms by Jesus is that in letting go of our lives, we find them.
In calling ourselves to go the extra mile in the MDG effort we are making for Kajo-Keji and our own poor, we are calling ourselves to transformation, to growing more into the image of God we were created to reflect.
What we also know is that parishes, where sacrificial giving for others occurs, discover that their local stewardship improves because people enter a new way of experiencing themselves.
I am grateful to be on this journey with you.For more information, please read the article by Charlie Barebo found here.
For a list of Parish Coordinator Training, check here.
As we develop the campaign, please check back frequently for information, news, and resources.
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