For Immediate Release
Contact
Jonathan Denn
860.672.1000 x260
info@countingprayers.org
"Billion Prayer March" Announced
West Cornwall, CT, 10 July 2008 - The Prayer Vigil to End Extreme Poverty has announced an ambitious new goal today to offer one Counting Prayer for every person living in extreme poverty. The Counting Prayer says, "The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will".
The inaugural prayer was offered on 9/23/07 at St. Paul's (the little chapel that stood) at Ground Zero in New York City. The counter on the website countingprayers.org shows that well over a half million prayers have been made already from all over the world. "We invite every person, and every congregation in every faith in every country to offer The Counting Prayer everyday and/or at every worship service until the Millennium Development Goals are met. Hundreds of thousands of prayers will turn into millions then billions, and as the prayers are answered the repetition of words will turn into advocacy then action, and finally a miracle." says Jonathan Denn, the author of the prayer.
"It is generally accepted that since the late 1960s the world had finally acquired enough wealth and knowledge to eliminate abject poverty-so why don't we?", asks Jonathan Denn the author of The Counting Prayer. "As a world we simply lack the will."
"The Billion Prayer March works on many different levels, you need not actually march, you can make a prayer pledge on the Counting Prayers website and the counter will continue its journey to one billion. However, I encourage you to organize a Billion Prayer March event at your own congregation. Sometime before, during, or after worship the congregants go out-of-doors (preferably) to offer The Counting Prayer 100 times (hopefully attracting attention). If there are a hundred congregants then we will be ten thousand prayers further along on the Billion Prayer March to End Extreme Poverty. Congregations need only enter the special event totals on the website.
Anyone can hold these events anytime in solidarity with other group's prayer meetings, at gatherings like the G8, or advocacy actions on behalf of the world's poor", says Denn.
For example, on 7/24/08, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 600 Bishops, and London's interfaith community will be marching on Parliament for the United Kingdom to honor their Millennium Agreement to provide a minimum of 0.7% of gross national income to nations in dire need of agricultural development. "It's now six years after the agreement and so far the UK is providing only half of the benchmark. The United States is providing only a quarter. Please consider joining this urgent witness event." Asks Denn, "As people of faith-how can we not?"
The Billion Prayer March has been endorsed by the United Religions Initiative (uri.org), the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary (onespiritinterfaith.org), and Millennium Congregation (millenniumcongregation.org). For more information please visit countingprayers.org.
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By day, Jonathan Denn is the Co-Director of the Trinity Conference Center in West Cornwall, CT, USA. For more information please see www.trinitywallstreet.org/center .
