London - More than 600 Anglican bishops led a protest march through central London Thursday urging world governments to tackle global poverty and fulfil pledges made for the new millennium. The colourful march, snaking through the government centre of Whitehall under sunny skies Thursday, was led by Rowan Williams, the head of the Anglican Church, and joined by hundreds more faith leaders, politicians, diplomats and charity groups.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who addressed a final rally of up to 2,000 participants, said the bishops had staged the "greatest public demonstration of faith" Britain had ever seen.
Williams, followed by hundreds of bishops from around the world who are currently attending the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference, marched under a banner calling on governments to halve world poverty by 2015, as pledged in the Millennium Development Goals (MBGs) set out in 2000.
The churches could "not stand by and let promises be broken," Williams said in a letter handed to Brown. "The cause is not a lack of resources, but a lack of global political will."
