Faith leaders in 160 countries to be an important part of new global movement to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change

WASHINGTON – More than 500 million people of faith in more than 160 countries on six continents will be reached through a global mobilization of prayer and reflection for the ambitious new Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which will be adopted by 193 world leaders at the United Nations next week. The Global Goals are a major landmark in the effort to end extreme poverty, laying out a global strategy for a world where nobody lives in hunger, dies of a preventable disease, or is endangered by climate change.

Part of a broad campaign to tell 7 billion people about the Global Goals, Prayer for Everyone is working with leaders in multiple faith traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Bahá’í, to encourage prayer and contemplation for the Global Goals between September 24th and October 1st. Leaders of religious organizations and faith communities — large and small — have agreed to share the Global Goals in different ways, including in prayers during services, through study groups and dedicated events, and through other communications platforms.

Prayer for Everyone has developed innovative social media prayer kits for each of those faiths, and groups including Religions for Peace and World Vision have developed custom prayer kits to make it easy for people to participate. Those kits are available now at www.prayerforeveryone.org. Translated versions will be posted in the coming days.

“The Global Goals are a blueprint for a world without extreme poverty, and we can build that world if we make sure our leaders deliver on the promises they’re making with these goals,” the ONE Campaign’s North American executive director, Tom Hart, said. “People of faith have been at the forefront of some of the most important moments of progress in history, and if we’re going to be successful at ending extreme poverty by 2030, it’ll be because people of faith stepped up and played a critical role in holding our leaders accountable. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Prayer for Everyone is mobilizing in faith communities around the world to reach more than half a billion people.”

The issues addressed by the Global Goals are central to all religious and spiritual traditions, which are the shared expressions of our humanity:

• The right to live a life of dignity, free from hunger and disease;
• The right of all people to live to their fullest human potential, in safety and well-being;
• Protection of the integrity of creation and our resources for current and future generations;
• The shared responsibility to work together so that our expressions of faith contribute to; and
• More sustainable development for the whole planet.

Speaking about the ground-breaking collaboration, Richard Curtis, founder of Project Everyone, said: “The Millennium Development Goals halved extreme poverty across the world. The new Global Goals for Sustainable Development give us the opportunity to end it for good. There’s no point in going half way. By making the Global Goals famous we can give them their best chance of working around the world – and help make us the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation in history to end injustice and inequality, and the last generation to be threatened by climate change.”

More about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development can be found online at www.globalgoals.org.

Prayer for Everyone is not prescriptive, with people of faith free to pray for the success of the Global Goals in the manner that feels best to them. Prayer for Everyone is providing ideas, for example:

• Reflect: Create space for reflection or meditation on the goals, the issues they address and what it will take for them to be achieved. Leaders can include the relevant issues (e.g. water, food, poverty, peace and justice, etc.) in worship and special services and use their social media platforms to spread awareness about the goals.
• Study: Faith communities can devote special attention to the issues in regular study groups, or create a special study group for the week. Faith schools can use free resources from www.globalgoals.org/worldslargestlesson to help them teach a lesson about the Global Goals.
• Witness: Make time during the week that the goals are adopted in New York to seek out and bear witness to the impacts of poverty, inequality, injustice, poor health, and harm to the environment locally and around the world. Create opportunities to respectfully engage with those most impacted in your community, listen to their voices and share them.
• Communicate: Religious media have enormous coverage and deep penetration and are excellent vehicles to share the goals with people in virtual global dialogue. Use Twitter and Facebook to start social chain actions, invite your online community to join #prayerforeveryone, champion the Goal you are most passionate with a #globalgoals selfie, and look for other ways to get the word out.
• Act: People of faith, faith leaders, and faith-based organizations can organize or support local worship services or community actions.

About the Global Goals campaign

On September 25th 2015, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, 193 world leaders will commit to a series of ambitious targets to achieve three extraordinary things in the next 15 years: end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and fix climate change. The Global Goals campaign – with Project Everyone, Global Citizen, action/2015, and UN agency partners – aims to reach 7 billion people in seven days.

Project Everyone is the brainchild of Richard Curtis with the ambition to tell everyone in the world about the Global Goals so they are best achieved. The project’s Founding Partners include Aviva, Getty Images, Pearson, SAWA Global Cinema Advertising Association, Standard Chartered, Unilever, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

All over the world, the project is being supported by hundreds of television, radio , poster and digital companies, mobile phone and broadband providers, NGO organizations from all sectors, businesses, sports clubs, film and television production companies, record labels, events, magazines and retailers, all of whom have agreed to carry the goals to their fans, customers and users to help them become known all over the world.