We Gather Together

Today marks the beginning of the Group of Eight, or G8 Summit, a meeting of leaders from the world's wealthiest industrialized nations to discuss global economic and development issues. Germany, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosts France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States, Canada and Russia, the countries that make up the G8 membership. The agenda for these meetings is growth and responsibility in the global community, as well as on the African Continent. Chancellor Merkel has clearly stated her belief that we need all global players to make this happen, implying a commitment to carry on the moral agenda set forth by the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Although these Summits are held annually, it was the historic agenda at Gleneagles that drew the world's attention. That gathering settled on the reality that in order to help Africa move forward and heal, we the wealthiest countries of the world would need to increase aid, forgive the debt Africa owes to us and remove trade barriers that hinder African exports. These broad-based goals centered on the intent of eradicating extreme poverty in our world in this generation. Quite remarkable is that in this point/click/delete world we have not lost hope for ourselves that this vision can be made real. In that there is immeasurable grace.

Having grown up through the 1960's and 70's believing that anything was possible, many of my generation have held onto our idealism through personal and societal struggles, long enough to see the cycles with which life blesses us. We have enough of ourselves in place to be comfortable with what we don't know, but are equally grounded in what we do know, and what it can mean to live into that knowledge for all it is worth. From such places comes care for our communities, our country, our world, our people, and faith at how education, healthcare and housing can begin to make lives whole. From such places comes wisdom that recognizes that these problems of AIDS and malaria, polluted water and inadequate sanitation, trade injustice and poverty, are not new or easily solvable, but they are indeed able to be addressed and steadily diminished over time. Perhaps because of our idealism, or maybe because we are uniquely positioned as a generation between World War II and the Iraq War, with a thick layer of Vietnam sandwiched in for good measure, we recognize that some things never change, but that many,many more can and do with an investment of will and compassion. We are fortunate materially, more so than generations which preceded us, and perhaps even those following us, but we are also blessed with an embodied hope that cannot be denied.

My own memory of this kind of hope had fallen a bit dim, unbeknownst to me until I opened an alumni update bulletin from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay a few days ago. While leafing through its glossy pages I happened upon the familiar face of Julie Brickley, my favorite professor who had passed on almost ten years ago. Two of her close friends and colleagues had established a scholarship in her honor. You see, although Julie was my favorite professor, she was cherished by the university community as a whole. She was the first woman to receive the UW-Green Bay Founders Award for teaching excellence, and she founded and chaired the Women's Studies program of which I was a part. "Julie believed passionately that language lived at the heart of learning in every discipline," said her colleague. " She brought its joy and beauty to her daily teaching." This woman who had inspired me to connect with my own heart and dreams, with my hope for the future, was inspiring me again.

Perhaps the G8 Summits will function in this way for our world this year and for all the years to come. The Summits are no longer just a small group of white men (and the occasional woman) meeting for a couple of days each summer, ruminating on the world's ills and delivering heady economic solutions for them. Now the G8 Summits will always be linked to the simple hope, the ready belief that we can eradicate extreme poverty in our world in this generation. Our generation. It will not happen overnight, but the process is already begun. We are doing it, one step at a time. The Biblical concept of hope is deeply rooted here, it is strong and it grows in us each day. And, indeed, we are assured that, "Hope does not disappoint us (Romans 5:5)."