[Episcopal News Service] “The key to eradicating most poverty on the planet, aside from programs that help, aside from economic development, which is all obvious, the key is to be found in women,” said Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in a March 17 sermon preached in honor of the Episcopal and Anglican women gathered in New York City for the 60^th annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

“If you increase the equality of women on the planet, if you empower women, economically, politically … in reality, they will lift up themselves, their children and their families, and that in turn will lift up cultures and societies,” said Curry. “Women, the economists tell us, are the key to making poverty history.”

Curry preached and the Most Rev. Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, presided at the service in the Episcopal Church Center’s Chapel of Christ the Lord.

The UNCSW serves to promote women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields, and to make recommendations on urgent problems regarding women’s rights. The theme for the 60^th annual UNCSW is “Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.”

Women from across the Episcopal Church and throughout the Anglican Communion representing more than 20 countries are gathered in New York for the 60th session of the UNCSW March 14-­­­­­­­24.

More ENS coverage of Anglican and Episcopal women’s participation in the UNCSW is here.