CHICAGO -- The G8 Summit, underway this week in Scotland, "is a challenge to the world's leaders to take decisive action on behalf of those living in extreme poverty," according to a statement from a forum in London attended by more than 35 religious leaders from throughout the world the last week of June.

According to a news release from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, among them was the Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the Saint Paul (Minn.) Area Synod of the ELCA.

Rogness attended "The London Forum" at Lambeth Palace representing the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop. The Rev. David M. Beckmann, an ELCA pastor and president of the Bread for the World, Washington, D.C., was also in the U.S. delegation.

The forum was hosted by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, and co-chaired by the Rev. Jim Wallis, director of Sojourners and Convener of Call to Renewal, Washington, D.C., and the Rev. David Goodbourn, general secretary, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

The G8 Summit this week in Gleneagles, Scotland, brings together the presidents and prime ministers of eight of the world's most industrialized nations -- host Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Among the topics the leaders will discuss are global poverty and debt relief for impoverished countries, many of which are in Africa.

Before leaving for Great Britain last week, Rogness and the other U.S. church leaders participated in a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and met with senior White House advisors.

"As meetings go, this was both highly engaging and highly significant," Rogness said.

"It didn't take long for me to recognize that the power of my presence was to be found in being one of three that filled out the delegation beyond the Evangelicals, who were key to its significance."

The fact that both White House officials and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown of Great Britain met with the religious leaders was important, Rogness said.

"The religious community has the attention of world leaders," he said. "Our challenge is to mobilize the attention and moral will of our own people to bring to bear upon those who make decisions on our behalf. The ball is in our court."

The religious leaders said, for the first time in history, humanity has the information, knowledge, technology and resources to bring "the worst" of global poverty virtually to an end.

"What is missing is sufficient political and moral will. As church leaders from diverse Christian traditions, we recommit ourselves and our faith communities to help generate that moral will at this critical historical juncture," they said.