June 23 online event addresses systemic poverty and food insecurity
by Melody K. Smith | Presbyterian News Service
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LOUISVILLE — The online Matthew 25 program series continues on June 23 at 2 p.m. (EDT). With 25% of children under 6 now living in poverty, many families lack sufficient income to meet the most basic needs, like nourishment. Poverty is the greatest threat to the healthy development of children and it comes with long-lasting, negative consequences.
The program will include conversations with pastors on how their congregations are engaging with their communities on economic exploitation of people through systems that perpetuate their impoverished status. To register for the June 23 Matthew 25 event, click here.
“The world produces enough food to feed all 7.5 billion people, yet 1 in 9 people around the world go hungry each day,” said the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. “Fighting hunger and food insecurity is at the heart of our Presbyterian understanding of mission. Jesus fed the hungry and had strong judgment against nations whose people and systems provide no relief for people who are hungry, thirsty and pressed into poverty.”
This event is open to everyone — all Matthew 25 congregations, groups and mid councils that have made the commitment to embrace the Matthew 25 vision, as well as anyone interested in learning more about Matthew 25. It will model the previous Matthew 25 events with facilitated dialogue, guest speakers and sharing of resources.
Attendees will hear examples of ways churches and mid councils are addressing this crisis that they can learn from and take away tools and resources for them to actively engage in their community.
“We Presbyterians evaluate any economic system not simply on the basis of the material goods and services it provides, but especially on the basis of its human consequences: what it is doing to, with and for people, particularly the most vulnerable among us. In our tradition, economic behavior, like all behavior, must be subject to moral scrutiny. For this reason, the church must speak to the present economic crisis, to the devastation it has brought, and to the hope to which we bear witness: that, in Christ, a more just order is arising. — “Living Through Economic Crisis,” 219th General Assembly (2010).
The Matthew 25 vision was launched in April 2019. Currently, there are over 950 churches, groups and mid councils that have made the commitment to become a Matthew 25 church.
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