Yesterday we had a St. Nicholas Eucharist at the Cathedral (photo attached), complete with a visit from the Bishop of Myra himself. Afterward we had a presentation about the Millennium Development Goals....the 8 goals adopted by the United Nations (and later by the Episcopal Church) to work toward eradicating world poverty--and all that poverty impacts--by the year 2015. Today I learned about a prayer being said at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, a prayer to be recited daily until the goals are met. Here's the article I read about this prayer, written by Barbara Crafton:
THE COUNTING PRAYER: WE HAVE THE MEANS Back in September, an important thing began to happen at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, the historic 18th-century church that served so many recovery workers after the destruction of the World Trade Center. You may not have noticed it, not right away, it was so simple and so quiet. But it's still happening as I write this, and you're noticing now. It's called The Counting Prayer. People are praying it every day: The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will. It takes about three seconds to say it. People are signing onto a pledge to say it daily. Individuals and congregations of all faiths and Christian denominations throughout the world are pledging to say the prayer at every public service of worship. I have promised to say it at Morning and Evening Prayer every day. The prayers are counted and tallied at http://www.countingprayers.org/home. The Counting Prayer will go on until the Millennium Development Goals are met. You know the MDGs, by now: that group of eight means by which extreme poverty and its terrible effects on the human race can be ended. We do not lack what is needed to fulfill them. Our failure to do so is purely a matter of will, and our will can change: that's one of the things prayer does in us. And our will does lead us: when our will has changed, our behavior follows. Because we don't pray for change in the world as if it were a reality external to ourselves. The world isn't outside us; we are the world. We pray to become that thing we wish to see in the world, to become people for whom comfort is incomplete while others still sicken and die from being poor. Perfectly aware that self-interest governs the affairs of nations and the lives of many individuals, we pray for another rule to grow among us: we pray for the world to become as important as the self. People are capable of living this way: ask almost any parent. The Prayer Vigil Counter as of this morning was at 0,000,064,032. The people at CountingPrayers.org say they expect to reach 100,000 by New Year's. They bid us all a blessed Advent. The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will.
