Materials created by Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) to promote the inaugural “Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday” on the First Sunday in Lent include a “Stations of the Millennium Development Goals” liturgy that the organization suggests parishes can use instead of the Stations of the Cross.
 
In a promotional e-mail, Luke Fodor, a coordinator at ERD’s Office of Church Relations, said the liturgy “is designed to be used during Lent in lieu of the traditional Stations of the Cross service.”
 
The preparation instructions that accompany the liturgy, which is adapted from a service developed by Mike Angell for the Office of Young Adult and Higher Education Ministries, state that “this liturgy will allow us to explore the goals, passing prayerfully through stations around our church and joining together in supplication for the needs of those who are hungry, sick, and living in extreme poverty.” Participants are instructed to move from station to station, reflecting on the eight MDGs. The introduction to the service notes, “We see ourselves and the Church as on a pilgrimage in the world, journeying with each other toward the justice of the reign of God as manifest in the goals.”
 
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori designated Feb. 10 as ERD Sunday in a Jan. 7 statement. She asked that congregations dedicate a special Lenten offering and prayer for ERD’s work.
 
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