 Global Integration UpdatesCommon Ground for the Common Good Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--October 2020Tough Times. Tougher People.Being our best selves--Uniting for a better world Encouragement for the community during covid.
Sign in downtown San Luis Obispo, California, USA (September 2020) "We face a foundational moment. Those who built the United Nations 75 years ago had lived through a pandemic, a global depression, genocide and world war. They knew the cost of discord and the value of unity. They fashioned a visionary response, embodied in our founding Charter, with people at the centre. Today, we face our own 1945 moment.The pandemic is a crisis unlike any we have ever seen. But it is also the kind of crisis that we will see in different forms again and again." UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Opening Address, UN General Assembly, 22 September 2020 ---------- In this Update we feature two new videos from the United Nations. The videos present the latest UN efforts--and exhortations--to join together locally through globally in order to not only make it through the covid pandemic but also to address the major issues facing our world.
--Nations United: Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times
UN video (September 2020)
--Opening Address by UN Secretary-General António Guterres
UN General Assembly (22 September 2020)
We encourage you to watch the videos and critically consider the messaging that is being presented, the issues being prioritized, and the actions being encouraged. More information below. How can we respond together during tough times, stirring up our best selves for a better world? What are your thoughts?
We finish with some of our faith-based perspectives about global issues and the pandemic. We also list/link to our Updates over the past several months with resources for covid-care.
Warm greetings,
Kelly and Michèle
MCAresources@gmail.com   --Share your comments and resources on our MCA Facebook page
--Forward to your colleagues and networks (link to sign up is at the end).
Featured Resources
Tough Times. Tougher People.
Being our best selves--Uniting for a better world
Gratitude for essential workers during covid.
Signs along the shoreline in Waterford, Connecticut, USA (September 2020) COVID-19 is not only a wake-up call, it is a dress rehearsal for the world of challenges to come. We must move forward with humility — recognizing that a microscopic virus has brought the world to its knees. We must be united. We have seen, when countries go in their own direction, the virus goes in every direction. We must act in solidarity. Far too little assistance has been extended to countries with the fewest capacities to face the challenge. And we must be guided by science and tethered to reality." UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Opening Address, UN General Assembly, 22 September 2020 ---------
 1. Nations United: Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times--UN promo and overview video (September 2020). Watch the video-film (34 minutes). (UN image above).
"Nations United is a special, first of its kind film, created by the United Nations on its 75th Anniversary and to mark five years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the midst of a pandemic radically transforming our world, Nations United tells the story of the world as it is, as it was, and as it could be. It focuses on the solutions and action we need to tackle poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change." Featuring UN leaders and several UN Goodwill Ambassadors. Going further--browse through:
--UN Sustainable Development Goals website for updates, perspectives, action.
--UN Department of Global Communications--Civil Society Announcements (21 September 2020)
 - “In a world turned upside down……Our world is struggling, stressed and seeking real leadership and action…. But we have reasons to be hopeful….I welcome this opportunity for a process of profound reflection involving us all….Let us respond affirmatively to the movements for justice and dignity we see in the world. And let us vanquish [the global geo-strategic tensions, existential climate crisis, deep and growing global mistrust, the dark side of the digital world, and the coronavirus pandemic] and build the world we need: peaceful, inclusive and sustainable. The pandemic has taught us that our choices matter. As we look to the future, let us make sure we choose wisely.” (excerpts for the Opening Address) Going further--browse through:
--Latest Statements related to different major issues by the UN Secretary-General at the UN General Assembly (22-29 September)
--Highlights from the UN General Assembly, including the General Debate (e.g., speeches from Heads of State and High Level Meetings (e.g., biodiversity, women, elimination of nuclear weapons)
Faith-Based Perspectives
Global Issues and Covid CareHumility is always in season.
Sackcloth and ashes are always in style.
One of our core conclusions and main messages for covid care
(after listening to six+ months of covid-related webinars from around the world). Image courtesy and ©ENOD 2017 "Paragraph 53 in the Sustainable Development Goals (Transforming Our World) states that "The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands." We understand this sobering comment in terms of the world community's moral responsibility to courageously and wisely act and the dire consequences of inaction. And from a faith-based perspective, our understanding is that humanity and the planet ultimately lie in God's hands. Acknowledging God and trusting God reaffirms our human dignity, as bearers of the imago Dei [character-image of God] and as co-laborers in the missio Dei [restoration-purpose of God]." Being Faith-Based and Evidence- Based. Global Integration Update (May 2019) Pandemics bring out people's best selves or their worse selves--our selfless and our selfish qualities. The reality of the uncertainties and anxieties of life, and indeed survival--existential risk--is heavy upon the world. Positively, the current COVID-19 pandemic certainly provides plenty of opportunities for us all--individually through internationally--to reflect on the types of people we want to be, the types of societies we need to build, and the types of changes we have to make. We join together in solidarity with the world community's efforts, locally through globally, on behalf of covid care and in hopes to stir up the best selves in all of us. We also note that the many overlapping problems in our world continue unabated--shadow pandemics--even as this covid pandemic dominates the center stage globally: multi-dimensional poverty, protracted violence, human rights violations, gross inequalities, racism, mental ill health, environmental degradation, etc. This is the ongoing, cascading context which challenges us daily as we seek to practically support the wellbeing of all persons/peoples and the planet.
See our recent Updates below for helping ourselves and others with covid care. Examples of issues/resources: anxiety, trauma, depression, confinement, loneliness, loss, grief, relationship strains, coping for children, work insecurities, spiritual struggles, uncertainty/concerns about what is going on, compassion, courage, mutual support, faith-based strengths, etc.
--Solidarity for Covid-Care: Being Real-Life Heroes
Global Integration Update (September 2020)
--Keep Persevering: Stories and Strategies in the Pandemic
Global Integration Update (August 2020)
--Managing Stress and COVID-Distress: Faith-Inclusive Resources
Global Integration Update (June 2020)
--Staying Sane During COVID-19: Mental Health Resources for Ourselves, Others, World Global Integration Update (May 2020)
--Confronting COVID-19: “Be smart. Be safe. Be kind.”
Global Integration Update (April 2020)
And:
--Helpful Thinking During the Coronavirus Outbreak. National Center for PTSD (USA)
--A Self-Care Guide...during COVID-19. Mary Hock Center, George Mason University
--Everyday Global Heroes. Global Integration Update (August 2017)
--Resolution, COVID-19 Response. World Health Organization (19 May 2020)
Final Thought
"Religion and faith, as we know, have a central place for most people in our world—including many “persons and communities of concern,” staff, organizations, governments, and donors. Faith-based people are thus often mainstream contributors and partners--and not marginal players--when it comes to the efforts to transform the world. The emphasis on personal transformation (including virtue and moral integrity) is often an important added contribution from the faith-based sector." Faith-Based Partners in Transformation. Global Integration Update (August 2015)
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications.
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability;
it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God,
and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 1963)
Global Integration Updates and Special News
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