St. Mark’s Adult Education Meeting Summary
“A Wing and A Prayer”, by Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori
Group Discussion Series Led By Rev. Mike Kreutzer
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Part Three: Pages 43-60
The group discussed various aspects derived from Part Three: A BILLION PEOPLE, A DOLLAR A DAY — Working for Justice and Peace. The sections in the book included: “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” / “Doing is Believing” / “A Cup of Starbucks” / “Sharing the Wealth” / and “Ready for Grace.”
The statement was simply made that we shouldn’t discriminate and we should feed the world. It was noted that these are very nice words, but how do we accomplish these tasks. It has been calculated that donations of 0.7% of everyone’s income would be enough to feed the world.
Then the question was raised that if everyone in the world is fed and healthy, would the population continue to explode even more, which would make it exceeding difficult to feed the additional people?
What about the rising middle classes of some of the third world countries. As the earth’s resources continue to be strained more and more, will we they eventually dry up? What impact would this have on the rest of the world.? Thus, just blindly giving money may not solve the root cause of the problem.
There are projects such as Heifer International or Oxfam International where people can donate to buy an animal such as a goat for a family in need. This type of gift keeps on giving. So what can one person do? A good start would be to make a donation directly to one of the above organizations or to an organization such as Episcopal Relief and Development.
