Praying to wipe out poverty

By Ed Merrison
AN UPWEY congregation has been praying to make poverty history.
Members of Upwey Anglican Church dedicated their service on Sunday, 17 September, to the aims of the Micah Challenge.
They set up eight interactive prayer stations to signify the Millennium Development Goals of the challenge, a global Christian campaign in aid of, and in partnership with, poor people everywhere.
La Trobe MP Jason Wood joined in their prayers and spoke about how the government addresses poverty.
The campaign calls for government to increase its aid level from 0.3 per cent of national income to 0.5 per cent by 2010 and 0.7 per cent by 2015.
It also urges the government to lobby for fairer global trade rules and ensure some of its aid money goes to building poor countries’ capacity to trade.
Other aims are to forgive poor nations’ debts and to ensure Australians fight against and do not benefit from corruption.