More on the Anglican Bishops March

from the AFP via Google

Here is more on the Anglican bishops march that took place in London on Thursday. - Kale

LONDON — Hundreds of Anglican bishops from around the world were among 1,500 people who marched through central London Thursday calling for urgent action to tackle global poverty.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown lent his support to their calls, telling them in a speech afterwards that the march was "one of the greatest public demonstrations of faith that this country has ever seen".

The march, organised during a once-a-decade gathering of the Anglican church underway in Canterbury, was aimed at calling on world leaders to do more to meet the UN Millenium Development Goals set in 2000 to tackle world poverty.

In a letter intended as a manifesto for the march, the church's top cleric, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said most of the goals to halve poverty by 2015 would not be achieved as things stood.

"Christian pastors and other faith leaders cannot stand by while promises are not kept, when nations are tempted by the easier path of preserving their own wealth at the cost of other peoples' poverty," he wrote.

He urged the United Nations -- due to debate the issue in New York in September -- to set a timetable on meeting the goals and commit to carbon emissions cuts to ease climate change which is hitting poor nations hard.

The Millenium Development Goals include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by 2015.

Brown, who has made helping developing countries out of poverty a key priority of his premiership, also warned that time was running out to meet the goals in an address after the march.

"You have sent a symbol, a very clear message with rising force that poverty can be eradicated, poverty must be eradicated and if we all work together for change, poverty will be eradicated," he said after the march.

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