NCC Poverty Update

PREACHING ABOUT POVERTY
'Do You Do Windows?'
A sermon by The Rev. Marcia B. Bailey, Pastor, Central Baptist Church, Wayne, PA

Text: Matthew 10:16-31

If and when you come to my house, I ask you, please don’t notice the windows! Oh, well, of course you would notice that we have windows and I don’t care that you notice their size or shape or even Photo of Rev.Marcia Bailey

how many but if you come, particularly on a sunny day, don’t notice them too closely. I don’t particularly like to “do windows”. . . .
. . . .
I’d like to think that the image of “doing windows” is a helpful one to use in challenging ourselves as individuals and as the church of Jesus Christ in this day and at this time to respond to the call of true discipleship -- to be in dynamic relationship with both Christ and the world. .. . it is at these windows that we come face to face with the intersection of our faith and the world, where that which we believe has the power to be transformed into that which we do. Click here for the full sermon . . .

MOBILIZATION FACTBOOK:
Early Childhood Poverty
Higher Risk Than Thought
A new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty finds that that the first years of life are more important than had been thought for children's emotional and intellectual development. This research significantly increases the urgency of addressing one of the most important risk factors that can impede young children's development: poverty.

The 2.1 million children under age three who are poor face a greater likelihood of impaired development because of their increased exposure to a number of factors associated with poverty, including: inadequate nutrition, environmental toxins, maternal depression , trauma and abuse, lower quality child care, and parental substance abuse. Each of the risk factors can have a particularly negative impact on brain development during early childhood.

As children in poverty grow into adolescence and adulthood, they are more likely to drop out of school, have children out of wedlock, and be unemployed. Click here for the full report (Story source: HandsNet)

INFORMATION EXCHANGE:
WHO Says Health of
U.S. Poor Mirrors Those
In Developing Nations
When the World Health Organization (WHO) studied national health systems worldwide, it found that the United States spends the most money per person on health care of any nation on earth ($3,724 per year). Yet, on average, Americans can expect fewer years of healthy life than members of most other developed countries. Why the discrepancy? Of five causes, the first on WHO’s list is the fact that "in the United States, some groups, such as Native Americans, rural African Americans and the inner city poor, have extremely poor health, more characteristic of a poor developing country than a rich industrialized one."

The report also shows that, among 191 nations, the U.S. came in 55^thon the measure of fairness of health system finance, with benefits going disproportionately to the wealthy. Other causes: rates of death and disability due to HIV/AIDS, cancers relating to tobacco use, coronary heart disease and violence. Rankings were based on number of years that residents might expect to live in "full health." Called Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy, this new system weights years of ill health according to severity and subtracts the figure from the overall life expectancy to show the years of healthy life. The wealthy United States ranked a dismal 24th, "one of the major surprises" of the study, said Christopher Murray, M.D. Ph.D., Director of WHO’s Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy. For the full 2000 WHO report, click here.

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INFORMATION EXCHANGE:
Presbyterians Publish
Hunger Study Guide
Copies of "Joining Hands Against Hunger: Bible Study & Worship Resources," a new set of study materials for congregations, are available from Presbyterian Distribution Service, toll-free at 800-542-2612.

The NCC Executive Board joined in this citizens public-education vigil at the Pennsylvania Capitol

Above: May 14 Good Schools vigil at the State capitol in Harrisburg

'Good Schools' Effort Gets NCC Board's Participation
The Executive Board of the National Council of Churches moved its May meeting to Harrisburg, PA, so its members could participate in one of the monthly interfaith prayer vigils at the state capitol, pressing for legislative attention to school funding, a project of NCC partner Good Schools Pennsylvania. The May 14 gathering, on the grand staircase under the capitol dome, is shown above. The vigils are part of a comprehensive public advocacy program that organizers hope will be replicable in every state, improving the quality of public education serving the children of families at every income level nationwide.

The National Council of Churches has long encouraged support for public education, most prominently through its Committee on Public Education and Literacy, which works to strengthen the faith community's support for public education and to encourage active, appropriate involvement in public schools by congregations. The committee developed the benchmark NCC policy "The Churches and the Public Schools at the Close of the 20th Century," adopted in 1999. The committee's Litany for Education and Schools, prepared for use in worship, is available in bulletin insert form by e-mail request to David Brown.

REGIONAL ECUMENICAL ACTION:
Strong Public Schools:
A Route Out of Poverty
"The public schools are the primary route for most children -- especially children of poverty -- into full participation in our economic, political, and community life. As a consequence, all of us, Christians and non-Christians alike, have a moral responsibility to support, strengthen, and reform the public schools."
--From "The Churches and the Public Schools at the Close of the Twentieth Century," a policy statement of the National Council of Churches General Assembly.

The school year is winding down this month, but it is not too early to begin planning for a Public Education Sabbath celebration in your church before the 2002-03 school year begins. The North Carolina Council of Churches has produced a substantive and helpful on-line packet of information that will help you plan such an event and that will provide ideas for year-round activities in support of public education. Put together by the North Carolina Council of Churches’ Committee on the Responsibility of Religious Communities Toward Public Education, the materials can be adapted for use in any community nationwide.

NCC CONGREGATIONS AT WORK:
Prophet Micah's Spirit Lives
In a Hoboken Congregation
Members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, took a long look around their neighborhood and decided they could best "do justice and love kindness" by building a community center--a totally new venture for the congregation. Click here to read more about All Saints, which participates in the National Council of Churches’ Micah 6 Congregations program.
This program helps congregations to view their life and mission through the lens of Micah 6:8, the Bible passage that asks us to "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God."

Participating churches have found that the program revitalizes congregational life. Growth in membership, a deepening spiritual life, and burgeoning social outreach ministries all flow from the integrated approach of this beloved Bible passage. Your congregation can translate the prophet Micah’s call into a course of action unique to your church and community with the help of the NCC’s newly published guide, Living Micah’s Call. Click here for information to order the guide and to contact the Micah 6 program.

NCC PovertyUpdate
. . . appears each month on the NCC website, www.ncccusa.org. Please advise your colleagues and friends of this service, and if you have a website, please link to us. Suggestions for content are welcome: e-mail us at news@ncccusa.org.

Here are links to Poverty Updates for:

March 2002. . . April 2002 . . . May 2002 . . . June 2002 . . . July 2002 . . . August 2002 . . . September 2002 . . .October 2002 . . . November 2002 . . . December 2002 thru February 2003

NCC MEMBER COMMUNIONS
African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Alliance of Baptists
American Baptist Churches in the USA
The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Church of the Brethren
The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America
The Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Friends United Meeting
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Hungarian Reformed Church in America
International Council of Community Churches
Korean Presbyterian Church in America
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
Mar Thoma Church
Moravian Church in America Northern Province and Southern Province
National Baptist Convention of America
National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
Orthodox Church in America
Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Polish National Catholic Church of America
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
Reformed Church in America
Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada
The Swedenborgian Church
Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America
United Church of Christ
The United Methodist Church

NCC MINISTRY PARTNERS
Bread for the World
Call to Renewal
Children's Defense Fund
Church World Service
Families USA
Good Schools Pennsylvania
Habitat for Humanity
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
National Jobs for All Coalition
National Religious Partnership for the Environment

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THIS MONTH'S DATES AND DEADLINES:
Monday, June 17: 'In a Global Economy, Who Profits?'
This conference, at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA, examines goals and values guiding globalization and its effects on rural communities in the Midwest and the Third World. It will also consider an alternative, biblically inspired model of globalization. Speakers include Dr. Dean Brackley, Roman Catholic priest at the Central American University in El Salvador who works in the Barrio near the campus. For more info, contact Center for Theology and Land, a rural ministry program of the University of Dubuque and Wartburg Theological Seminaries. Phone 563-589-3117. E-mail ruralmin@wartburgseminary.edu or ruralmin@dbq.edu. Or contact Wisconsin Council of Churches, Sun Prairie, WI.

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