Two related items this morning from Episcopal Life Online.
In Myanmar, Episcopal Relief and Development responds to Cyclone Nargis – Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) is responding to Cyclone Nargis and providing churches and individuals with an opportunity to help those affected by the deadly disaster.
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ERD has established relationships with local partners in Myanmar to get assistance quickly to many of the most vulnerable people.
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Churches can use a downloadable bulletin insert, to inform and encourage members to help.
To help people affected by the cyclone in Myanmar, make a donation to ERD’s “Myanmar & Cyclone Response” online here, or by calling 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development “Myanmar & Cyclone Response” P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
Presiding Bishop urges congressional defeat, presidential veto of Farm Bill – She writes,
As we are learning more each day about the widening food crisis around the world and the deepening economic problems threatening the poor and those living on the margins at home, it is fundamentally wrong for Congressional leaders to seek passage of a farm bill that harms American family farmers and significantly exacerbates poverty and suffering around the world.
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This week, after months of closed-door negotiations, House and Senate leaders unveiled a package that corrects none of the significant inequities in the current system and, remarkably, goes further than current law in exacerbating human need around the world. Particularly at a time when American attention is focused on the international food crisis, the farm bill “compromise” announced by House and Senate leadership is a moral failure of the highest order.
President Bush immediately vowed to veto the Farm Bill compromise:
“This bill increases subsidies to farmers at a time of record farm income,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. The negotiators “have done a disservice to taxpayers.”
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports the bill. Congressional leaders plan to bring it to the House and Senate floors next week for votes that could test the depth of support for it.
The package, the product of weeks of closed-door bargaining, is stuffed with plums for key constituencies.
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[A]dministration officials cited a number of problems, including new protections for sugar beet and sugar cane growers that will require the government to buy excess quantities of Mexican sugar and resell it to ethanol plants at a loss.