Micah Challenge and evangelical engagement at the G8

[Italian]

Emergency is a word that resounds loudly and often in the lands of the earthquake. In the Abruzzo region, after the terrible earthquake at the beginning of April, life moves on in emergency. But the world at large is in a state of emergency. How else can you describe a situation whereby global poverty is structural and increasing on a world scale?

Now is the time to reverse the tide and to approach emergency with emergency measures. And evangelicals are in the forefront of this process.
This has been the thrust of the meeting held in the city of L'Aquila on 7th July.
At the eve of the G8 meetings, while world leaders were on their way to the summit, the Italian Evangelical Alliance and Coevema, a relief agency started after the earthquake, convened a meeting of a number of relief and development Christian organisations working nationally and internationally.

The Micah Challenge campaign was the framework of the gathering with its emphasis on the Millennium Goals.
More than 20 agencies took part at this historic meeting. A document was signed by all participants and sent to the G8 summit and the media. The text recalls the Millennium Goals and the lack of significant results so far. It then appeals not for cosmetic measures but for structural changes according to justice and shalom in the global economic and political system.

It also highlights the Evangelical commitment to the transformation of the whole of reality and their willingness to work together will those who care for the emergency situation of the world.

Evangelicals are good news people who cannot separate their restored relationship with God through Jesus Christ and their responsibility to the world.

July, 8th 2009