Episcopal Press and News
Hunger Committee Plans for Food Day and Beyond
Episcopal News Service. March 26, 1987 [87065]
NEW YORK (DPS, March 26) -- The National Hunger Committee met at the Episcopal Church Center here in mid-March to welcome a new consultant, Diane Porter, who will be staffing the Committee through the Church Center; and to plan for the future.
Among the items Committee members say they are most excited about are resource materials for World Food Day, Oct. 16, which were approved at this meeting. The resource packet includes a proclamation from Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning inviting Episcopalians to observe World Food Day and to hold an ingathering on the following Sunday, Oct. 18.
Asking the question, "Where does our world see Jesus?," Browning replies that bread for the hungry "can mean the difference between a visible and invisible Jesus." He asks that offerings from that day which are not designated for local use be channeled through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, designated for "World Hunger." In closing, he adds, "If we would be where Jesus is, we must be the bread to His world." Other materials include a sermon, a bulletin cover, a poster and a booklet of "Prayer and Praise" to aid people in putting together World Food Day celebrations.
The packet is scheduled to be mailed in May to all diocesan hunger committees and diocesan Presiding Bishop's Fund representatives and will be available from Episcopal Parish Supplies at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
The Committee noted that their newsletter, The Hunger Networker, is back in production, and the first issue contains practical resources for congregational use, including songs, graphics and stories.
A 1986 survey of diocesan hunger chairmen served as the basis for plans adopted by the Committee to "create and produce a document for study, reflection and action to be distributed as a focus of provincial network activity in 1988" and which could also be used on the diocesan and parish levels. Also in response to concerns expressed in the survey -- which had a 65 percent response rate -- the Committee made plans to concentrate on two main issue areas: world food production/distribution and the inadequacies of public assistance.
Present at the meeting were: Barbara Volker, Province I; the Rev. Perry Winterrowd, Province II; the Rev. Florence Ledyard, Province III; Nancy Craig, Province IV; the Rev. Peter Strimer, Province V; Barbara Roark, Province VI; Gladys Maynard, Province VII; Margot Miller, Province VIII, chairwoman; the Rt. Rev. David R. Birney, Bishop of Idaho, and the Rev. Canon Peter Greenfield of Lancaster, Pa., members at large; and Lynne Hooper of Roswell, N.M., secretary. The committee will meet again Oct. 26-29.