Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, (second from right), joins the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams (center), and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (fifth from left) at Lambeth Palace.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (ANS) -- More than 600 bishops and their spouses took time out from the Lambeth Conference, the conference of Anglican bishops taking place at the University of Kent near Canterbury, England, joining in a walk of witness against poverty in London on Thursday, July 24.

The walk took the bishops past the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister's London residence, before concluding at the Archbishop of Canterbury's official residence, Lambeth Palace, where they were joined by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The Prime Minister praised the march as "the greatest public demonstration of faith" to ever take place in the UK and reaffirmed his desire to work with people of faith in eradicating poverty.

"You have sent a simple and a very clear message with rising force, that poverty can be eradicated, that poverty must be eradicated and if we can all work together for change poverty will be eradicated," he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, meanwhile paid tribute the Micah Challenge movement of Christians around the world that are putting pressure on their governments to do everything they can to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed upon by world leaders in 2000 with the aim of halving extreme global poverty by 2015.

He said, "What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, love mercy, to walk humbly with your God," quoting the verse at the heart of the Micah Challenge movement, Micah 6.8. "That is the challenge we seek to confront today."

The International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance, Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe was among those joined the bishops on their walk of witness. He later joined the Archbishop and other faith leaders in a lunch reception with Mr Brown, before meeting the Queen at a reception at Buckingham Palace.

In a conversation with Mr Brown, Dr Tunnicliffe thanked him for his commitment to eradicating poverty through deepening government's partnership with the Christian community. He further urged the Prime Minister to use his influence on other world leaders to make the same commitment to greater collaboration.

The Walk of Witness was a joint initiative of Lambeth Palace and Micah Challenge. Micah Challenge is a joint project of World Evangelical Alliance and Micah Network.

World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is made up of 128 national evangelical alliances located in 7 regions and 104 associate member organizations. The vision of WEA is to extend the Kingdom of God by making disciples of all nations and by Christ-centered transformation within society. WEA exists to foster Christian unity, to provide an identity, voice and platform for the 420 million evangelical Christians worldwide.

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