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Church and Society
This committee seeks
to serve local churches, district councils and synods, ecumenical and
appropriate secular bodies, in raising awareness, sharing information and
encouraging reflection and action on matters of justice and peace, healing and
reconciliation. It seeks to represent the concern of the church for such matters
to government and others with power over the life of people in these islands,
acting ecumenically wherever possible. It is responsible for Commitment for Life
(including the 1% appeal) and will promote such other programmes as will help
the above aims.
Committee Members
Convener: Revd
Martin Camroux
Secretary: Stuart
Dew
Administrator:
Wendy Cooper
Geoffrey Duncan, Melanie
Frew (convenor, Commitment for Life), Simon Loveitt (convenor elect, Church and
Society), Revd Tjarda Murray, Revd Alan Paterson (co-opted member), Revd Dr
David Pickering, Emma Pugh,
Revd Margaret Tait.
Attending by
invitation: Revd Delia Bond, (Health and Healing network) Graham Handscomb
(Free Church Education committee).
Commitment for Life
Sub-committee
Convener: Melanie
Frew
Programme
Co-ordinator: Linda Mead
Programme Assistant:
Alison Blick
John Griffith, Charles
Jolly, Julie Kirby, Anne Parker, (Commitment for Life advocates) Simon Loveitt
(Church and Society), Nic Pursey (World Development Movement), Cordelia Moyse
(Christian Aid).
1. Profile
1.1 The arrival, in
October, of a new secretary, after an eight month interregnum, offered an
opportunity to raise the profile of Church and Society, both nationally and
locally. The latter is the more challenging task. In some synods and districts
there are well-informed and energetic committees and advocates, who believe
passionately (as we do!) that Church and Society should be at the very heart of
church life, while in others ....we are still trying to locate these people. It
is a high priority of Church and Society to encourage, resource, visit and work
with local enthusiasts, to enable people in local churches to explore the
relevance of their faith to the issues facing society today.
1.2 The Church and
Society pages on the United Reformed Church website have been re-written and
illustrated and are now regularly updated. Features include a calendar of
Sundays on which churches can focus upon particular issues, with links to
worship and background material. The Church and Society Hotline, published
monthly, is also available on the website, as well as by electronic and surface
mail. In February, the fiftieth edition of Hotline was produced.
1.3 Several news
releases, put out through the Church’s media office, received press and radio
coverage. One welcomed a decision by the Home Office to drop provisions from
proposed anti-terrorist legislation, which would have allowed the police to
apply for places of worship to be closed, if they felt that ‘extremist
behaviour’ was taking place on the premises. In a submission on the proposal,
prepared jointly by Church and Society and Inter-Faith Relations, the Church had
said it was particularly sensitive to any suggestion that freedom to worship
might be curtailed, because of the history of persecution of its predecessor
denominations. A second news release said the Church understood the offence
caused to Muslims by publication of cartoons seen as showing disrespect to the
Prophet Muhammad. It supported the right of Muslims to mount peaceful protest to
make clear their hurt, but condemned the use of violence, threats of violence
and civil unrest. Local churches were encouraged to show solidarity with
Muslims, building on the good relationships already established in many areas.
1.4 The visit to the main
party political conferences by a Free Church delegation (United Reformed,
Baptist, Methodist, Quaker and Salvation Army) is being re-instated this year,
after a lapse in 2005. The aim of these visits is to enable church leaders to
meet parliamentarians and to meet members of the Christian groups associated
with the parties. This year, it is hoped that the churches will also host fringe
meetings. The Moderator of General Assembly, a past Moderator, and a Synod
Moderator, will each attend one of the conferences, together with the secretary
for Church and Society.
2. Public Issues team
2.1 After earlier
exploratory conversations, Church and Society entered into detailed discussions
with Methodist and Baptist representatives in November 2005, regarding the
possibility of setting up a Public Issues team, that would serve the three
churches, and any others who decided to commit to it. A free-standing agency,
owned and managed by the participating churches, was identified as an eventual
goal, however, a number of obstacles prevent this being achieved easily. A model
has therefore been produced that would enable the benefits of increased joint
working to be realised quickly, with the bigger vision remaining on the agenda
for the future. The team would not represent itself in a wider context, but
would facilitate the response of the contributing traditions. Each Church would
retain the task of communicating the team’s work and servicing denominational
structures.
2.2 It is envisaged, at
the time of writing, that the Church and Society (or equivalent) department of
each participating church would commit a proportion of its staff and/or
financial resources, to a team that would provide a public issues service for
the churches. Levels of commitment are still to be agreed, but the United
Reformed Church might contribute between 50 and 60% of the time of both its
Church and Society secretary and administrator.
2.3 Central to the
proposal would be the appointment of a team leader (or co-ordinator). Regular
team meetings would have an important function in building a common sense of
purpose, and identifying and allocating upcoming work. The work of the team
would be overseen by a management group consisting of a representative of each
of the participating churches. For the United Reformed Church this would the
convener of the Church and Society committee.
2.4 It is important to
note that this is not a way of reducing the (already small!) Church and Society
budget, rather of the Church getting better value for what it spends. Benefits
would include:
-
Advancing ecumenical
working whilst retaining denominational identity
-
Increasing
opportunities for churches to speak with one voice, when appropriate
-
Significant reduction
in duplication. One member of the team could research and produce a document
on a subject. The resource produced could be issued jointly, or could be
adapted by the churches to meet their particular needs, or to include a
denominational emphasis. The single team member would be the identified
point of contact and would be available to brief the churches
-
Team members would
have more opportunity to gain expertise on particular subjects rather than
trying to cover an increasingly wide brief.
2.5 The Church and
Society committee gave unanimous backing to the outline proposal at its meeting
on 3-4 February 2006. If a more detailed plan is approved by the three
denominations, the team could become operational later this year, subject to
funding. The United Reformed Church would have the opportunity to review its
contribution in October 2007, when the contract of the current secretary for
Church and Society comes to an end.
3 Other ecumenical
initiatives
3.1 Peacemaking: a
Christian Vocation. In 2003, General Assembly asked Church and Society to
prepare a report on the ethics of war for the 21st century and to work
ecumenically in this task. In 2004, the Methodist Council approved a joint
collaboration. A working group drew together people with diverse backgrounds –
including seasoned peace activists, a military chaplain, a minister who formerly
saw service on nuclear submarines, and academic theologians. The intention was
to provide a study that stimulates reflection within and beyond the churches,
and an ethical analysis to help support the judgement of church leaders in
complex and uncertain situations, where British military intervention is
proposed. The resulting document has a strong emphasis on peacemaking, thus the
change of title from the original Ethics of War to Peacemaking: a Christian
Vocation.
It has been published separately from the Book of Reports, but the
working group would like it to be seen as part of the Assembly Report. It is
hoped that some kind of guide will be produced, to encourage study.
3.2 A United Reformed
and Methodist Environmental Network has now been launched, as one way of
progressing the environmental policy, approved by General Assembly in 2004. One
of the network’s principal aims will be to assist local churches to respond to
environmental concerns in their life and mission. Co-ordinator is Gwen Jennings,
whose background is in the United Reformed Church, and who is a technical
advisor on waste issues for the Environment Agency. A newsletter is being
launched; the first edition should be available at Assembly. It will, initially,
be distributed with the Church and Society Hotline, as well as through other
outlets. A reference group drawn from both churches will support and oversee the
work.
3.3 The CTBI
Environmental Issues Network has adopted, in partnership with the Christian
Ecology Link, the Operation Noah Climate Change Campaign, which makes a
significant Christian contribution to the Stop Climate Chaos coalition. David
Pickering and George Morton represent Church and Society on the Churches
Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) network. Operation Noah invites
individuals to sign the Operation Noah climate covenant, cut carbon emissions,
and spread the word. Another environmental project which comes under the CTBI
umbrella is Eco-Congregation, which helps churches to consider
environmental issues from a Christian perspective and to respond with spiritual,
practical and community-orientated steps. While referring to these different
Christian contributions to the environmental movement, A Rocha should be
mentioned. It is an international Christian conservation organisation and
produces worship material for Environment Sunday, the Sunday nearest to
World Environment Day, which is 5 June. The United Reformed Church policy
encourages churches and individuals to engage with all or any of these
initiatives.
3.4 Environmental
Exchange. Plans are advancing (brokered by International Relations and
supported by Church and Society) for an exchange visit with the Protestant
Church of the Kiribati islands, in the Pacific Ocean. Kiribati has a population
of fewer than 100,000; the one thousand islands are mostly less than three
metres above sea level and are under serious threat as climate change causes sea
levels to rise. A group from Kiribati will come to Britain in October this year,
possibly including a member of the Kiribati government, and will visit several
synods. It will be an opportunity to bring alive the environmental policy, and
to demonstrate that our environmentally unfriendly lifestyle has very real and
serious consequences for our Christian sisters and brothers on the other side of
the world. A United Reformed Church group will visit Kiribati in 2007, marking
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the
islands (See 8.4).
3.5 Twenty years after
the publication of Faith in the City the Church of England has convened another
Commission on Urban Life and Faith. The United Reformed Church has been
represented on it by the Revd Graham Cook. The commission’s report Faithful
Cities – a call for celebration, vision and justice will have been published
shortly before General Assembly.
4. Other
international activities
4.1 CTBI International
Affairs Liaison Group. The last meeting of the group within the former CTBI
framework was held in December. The group was handicapped in knowing how to
proceed because of the uncertainty regarding new CTBI working arrangements.
4.2 Zimbabwe. The
United Reformed Church and its partners are still mired in frustrated concern as
to how to respond to the situation. Unusually, the report of the most recent
visit to Zimbabwe by the World Council of Churches, in September 2005, uses
outspoken language, recognising how bad the situation is – and how little
prospect there is of the churches being able to do anything to change it. The
United Reformed Church maintains contact with partners in Zimbabwe – the Uniting
Presbyterian Church, the United Congregational Church and Commitment for Life
partners (See 8.2).
5. Ethical and Moral
Issues
5.1 Church and Society
plays an active role in the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group
(see report from Mission Council). Issues discussed include Israel/Palestine:
Progressive Engagement and Investment Options (a resolution to Mission Council
was supported by Church and Society) and the Church’s stance on boycotting
Nestlé products.
5.2 Nestlé. The
decision by the Methodist Church, in November 2005, to allow its investment
agency to invest in Nestlé, prompted Church and Society and Commitment for Life
to consider whether any change should be proposed to the resolution of General
Assembly in 1992, which encouraged synods, districts and local churches to
boycott the purchase of Nestlé products, because of the way in which Nestlé
marketed baby milk substitutes in poorer countries, discouraging breast feeding.
The view of the Church and Society committee is that the Church should continue
to recommend a boycott of Nestlé products; however, the committee endorses the
possibility of a selective purchase of shares in companies to enable campaigning
from within (See 8.6).
5.3 Euthanasia and
Assisted Dying. Church and Society hopes to initiate a debate on euthanasia
and assisted dying over the next twelve months. A Bill to allow assisted suicide
was introduced in Parliament and was due to receive a second reading in May this
year. Although it may fail through lack of parliamentary time, there is now some
momentum for a change to legislation, with churches which oppose it being
portrayed as ‘party poopers’. No one can remember when the United Reformed
Church last considered the issue. Although a debate would probably reveal a
range of opinions, it is a debate which Church and Society believes the Church
should have.
5.4 Human Trafficking.
As this report was being drafted, Church and Society was planning to respond to
a Home Office consultation on Human Trafficking. Victims – who are often young
people, brought into Britain for the purpose of sexual exploitation – are
currently subject to asylum law. The consultation document suggests that they
could be given temporary leave to remain in Britain, and offered some support,
while they consider whether to assist with bringing a prosecution against those
who trafficked them. It is ironic that the 200th anniversary of the abolition of
the slave trade is being celebrated in 2007 by ‘Set All Free’, a project to
which Church and Society, Commitment for Life, Racial Justice and Life and
Witness will all contribute. The campaign to abolish slavery was one in which
Christians led the way – yet often modern day victims of human trafficking are
effectively held as slaves.
5.5 Civil Partnerships.
The Civil Partnership Act 2004, which came into law on 5 December 2005, enables
same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship by signing a
civil partnership document in the presence of a registrar; Churches are being
approached to hold services of blessing for civil partnerships. In the United
Reformed Church the decision whether or not to offer such a service lies with
the Local Church. The secretary for Church and Society contributed to a paper
for Mission Council jointly prepared with Doctrine Prayer and Worship, and the
Clerk of General Assembly, containing advice for local churches.
6. Other aspects of
Church and Society work
6.1 The Revd Delia Bond,
co-ordinator of the Health and Healing network, and United Reformed
Church representative (with Revd Deborah McVey) on Churches Together for
Healing, reports through Church and Society. Delia Bond attended the Church and
Society meeting in February to explain the breadth of what is encompassed by
Health and Healing – a Bible-based ministry which represents the churches’
response to Jesus’s commission to preach the gospel and heal the sick. In
practical terms this may embrace pastoral care, prayer, healing services,
administering the sacraments, healing of memories, deliverance, forgiveness and
reconciliation, preparing people for death, and being involved with vulnerable
and needy groups in the community. Church and Society will help publicise a
directory and guidelines for the healing ministry, which Churches Together for
Healing is producing.
6.2 HIV/AIDS Working
Group. ‘I have AIDS – please hug me – I can’t make you sick’; words on a
poster produced by a child with AIDS from London. Fear, stigma and
discrimination remain but there are signs of hope, not least in the support and
care offered by the many projects and programmes working with AIDS sufferers and
their families. The HIV/AIDS Working Group is seeking to build on relationships
with projects in this country and internationally, with the aim of enabling
churches to gain greater awareness through opportunities for closer involvement.
The Group would like to thank those who responded to the request for information
on existing links. In the coming months, contacts will be followed up, and
resources prepared for the launch, on World AIDS Day – 1 December – of a
programme which will focus, for the first year, on children with AIDS. The Revd
Martin Hazell is the new Convener of the Group which also includes Methodist
colleagues.
6.3 The United Reformed
Church is represented on the Free Church Education committee by Gill
Kingston, head of religious education at a boys’ grammar school, and Graham
Handscomb, principal education advisor to Essex local authority. Graham also
represents the Church on the Churches’ Joint Education Policy committee. A
non-statutory national framework for religious education has been developed. Its
aim will be to clarify standards for religious education, promote high quality
teaching and learning and recognise the important contribution of RE to pupils’
spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It is hoped that this
significant development will help to enhance the status of RE alongside other
subjects within the National Curriculum; the Free Church Education committee
welcomes this.
6.4 Through Church and
Society, Graham Handscomb and Gill Kingston offered themselves as a resource for
churches on Education Sunday, a national day of prayer and celebration for those
involved in education, which has been recognised for more than one hundred
years. This year it was Sunday 12 February; the theme was ‘Prizes that last’
from 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27.
6.5 Churches’ Criminal
Justice Forum (CCJF) grew out of a concern for women in prison highlighted
by the Catholic Agency for Social Concern. In 2001, it was formalised as a
network of CTBI. Wilma Frew represents Church and Society, bringing her twenty
years experience as a magistrate. CCJF seeks to promote imaginative and
innovative schemes to rehabilitate offenders, and to deflect them from
re-offending. A new version of the popular What Can I Do? booklet, outlining
volunteering opportunities within the criminal justice system, has been produced
with the help of Home office funding.
6.6 The secretary for
Church and Society is a member of a small committee which annually produces
literature for Prisons Week – the third week in November, during which
churches are encouraged to focus upon criminal justice issues. The theme for
this year is ‘They Opened the Door’, using the lectionary reading for Sunday 19
November from Acts 12: 1-19. A database of United Reformed Church members
involved in prison chaplaincy is being compiled, with the aim of encouraging
churches to invite these people to help lead worship on that day.
6.7 One of the priorities
of the United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship is to try to ensure that
the Church’s investments are ethically sound (See 5.1 and 5.2). Assembly, in
2005, recommended avoidance of investment in companies ‘a significant part’ of
whose business is the production of military equipment, and defined
‘significant’ as 10-20% of total turnover. The Peace Fellowship would like that
figure to be lower. Another priority is to pray and witness against Nuclear
Weapons with Christian CND. The Peace Fellowship was pleased to see the
signature of the Revd Sheila Maxey, past Moderator of General Assembly, on a
letter in The Guardian advocating government compliance with the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty, and openness to democratic scrutiny and public debate
on the future of Trident. The convenor of the Fellowship, the Revd Hazel Barkham
was one of the members of the Methodist and United Reformed Church group that
produced Peacemaking: a Christian Vocation. Andrew Jack has been elected as the
new convener.
6.8 Steve Pryor of FURY
has represented Church and Society on Stamp Out Poverty, otherwise know
as the Tobin Tax Network. The campaign has been focussed on lobbying government
in an attempt to advance a currency transaction tax (CTT) proposal. This small
tax would be ring-fenced and would be used for international aid. Whilst the
ideal would be for the tax to be implemented globally, there is scope for it to
be administered unilaterally, and the current campaign is for a stamp duty on
sterling transactions. Stamp Out Poverty has also supported the campaign for an
air ticket levy. This was approved at a meeting of ministers in Paris, in March,
and could become the first ever tax levied specifically to help relieve global
poverty.
6.9 The Church and
Society convener elect and secretary were planning to attend a national poverty
consultation organised by Church Action on Poverty on 29 and 30 March
2006, after this report was drafted. Consultations are held every two or three
years to give representatives of church agencies the opportunity to reflect upon
social, political and economic trends, and to consider strategic and
collaborative responses. The key question for the 2006 consultation was: ‘How
can we not just bridge the divide between rich and poor, but between the
differing understandings we have of poverty, and how to respond to it within the
churches?’
7. The succession
7.1 Martin Camroux
completes his term as convener of the Church and Society committee after
Assembly this year. He has been a great source of wise counsel, particularly to
a new secretary. Martin and Wendy Cooper, Church and Society administrator, put
in much extra effort to ensure that Church and Society remained open for
business, during the period between Andrew Bradstock’s departure in February
last year and the arrival, in October, of Stuart Dew. Convener elect, Simon
Loveitt, is a Church Related Community Worker in Bradford.
Commitment for Life Sub-Committee
8.1 Overview.
Commitment for Life has seen great change over the past few months. The arrival
of a new co-ordinator, administrator, convenor and link person at Christian Aid
has coincided with the end of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY (MPH) year. Many of our
congregations marched, wore white bands and stayed up all night to make their
feelings felt about global injustice. It was a year of ‘Mass Moments’ but as
Kumi Naidoo, head of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, said memorably
at the time: ‘The people have roared but the G8 has whispered’. Therefore,
Commitment for Life is adapting and growing in a post-2005 environment. The lack
of direction and disappointment that followed the World Trade Organisation talks
in December 2005 have been replaced with new energy and focus. High on the
agenda is the need to make sure that governments do not go back on their
promises on trade, aid and debt. For many Churches and individuals, wearing a
white band was a symbol of an awakening to justice for all God’s people. Now
they feel that they cannot rest, knowing that a child dies of poverty every
three seconds. They want to carry on campaigning, believing that they can make a
real difference to people’s lives.
8.2 Churches.
Traditional Commitment for Life churches continue to commit generously. We are
able to support them throughout the year with new resources, updates on
campaigning and news from our four focus countries, through Christian Aid. Our
partner countries of Zimbabwe and the Occupied Palestinian Territories have
needed our prayerful support through another dangerous and crisis-led year.
Bangladesh has experienced many problems within its various religious
communities. We were blessed to have a visitor, Daunette Wellington, from
Jamaica Aids Support for Life (JASL) with us in late 2005 helping us understand
the needs of the people of Jamaica who live with AIDS. We are grateful to
‘Belonging to the World Church’ for its financial help in this project. The
Christmas resource focused on Bethlehem, trying to understand the plight of
ordinary people caught in the middle of the conflict. New Commitment for Life
service outlines and PowerPoint presentations for all four partner countries
have been well received. We continue to update the website with articles and up
to date information. ‘Prayer Partners’ went out to churches at the beginning of
2006 to aid prayer for our focus areas and countries. New leaflets and posters
are now available to churches and highlight many of the environmental issues
affecting Christian Aid’s partners. The need to support our focus countries
through prayer and action remains of paramount importance. We would challenge
churches not already involved in Commitment for Life to give this urgent
prayerful consideration.
8.3 Wider Role.
Emerging campaigning churches often work ecumenically, as did MPH. Our new
e-mail
newsletter ‘Stories for Change’ is now sent out to 300 churches. This
seeks to educate and inspire churches to campaign on current issues as well as
giving background information and stories about our partner countries of
Bangladesh, Jamaica and Zimbabwe. Many who receive this do not support
Commitment for Life but signed up for MPH campaign e-mail last year and were
happy to continue receiving campaigning information. This newsletter was also a
direct response to the resolution on support for Zimbabwe, at last year’s
General Assembly. We are working with FURY, supporting their resolution to
campaign with the World Development Movement’s ‘Dirty Aid, Dirty Water’
campaign. A FURY group will visit Jamaica this year and then speak at many
venues around the country promoting the need for understanding, support and
action. Ways of communicating to Synod meetings have been strengthened. All
Synods are to be thanked for their wholehearted support of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY
through signing action postcards, leading themed worship and providing each
church with a copy of ‘Nine Lives’, our contribution to 2005. Many churches used
our literature and worship materials leading up to, and on, 1 December – World
AIDS Day.
8.4 Many churches now see
social justice action as part of their mission. The lines between many of our
issues, those of ‘Belonging to the World Church’ and our lifestyles in the
United Kingdom are becoming intertwined. This resonates especially with
environmental issues and is one of the reasons for FURY deciding to follow the
WDM campaign. Another area in which we reach out to the whole church is through
HIV/AIDS, worship resources being freely available on the website. We add an
international viewpoint when being active in the United Reformed Church AIDS
Group.
8.5 Trade Justice
was the hardest of the three big issues from MPH on which to bring about change,
but it has the greatest potential to lift people out of poverty by their own
endeavours. A shift in the government’s rhetoric could be detected in a
statement by Prime Minister Tony Blair following the publication of the Africa
Report: ‘Forcing poor countries to liberalise through trade agreements is the
wrong approach to achieving growth and poverty reduction in Africa, and
elsewhere’. However, at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong in
December, rich countries, including the UK government and the EU, consistently
promoted their own interests over those of the world’s poor. Commitment for Life
continues to promote campaigning on Trade Justice through links with The Trade
Justice Movement and Christian Aid.
8.6 Fairtrade has
made a leap from an organisation supported by non-government organisations and
charities into the big world of the major retail players. This was very evident
at the recent launch of Certified Fairtrade Cotton where representatives from
the Churches mixed with buyers from big business. Jesus said, ‘He has sent me to
bring good news to the poor’; Fairtrade has at its heart a just system that
frees producers from exploitation, enabling them to lift themselves out of
poverty. Jesus reminds us of our responsibility to make a new heaven on a new
earth.
-
In the early autumn
Nestlé launched a Fairtrade Mark coffee called ‘Partners Blend.’ Whilst this
could be seen as a response to consumer demand, it is only one product and
we hope to see more Fairtrade products and principles across their range.
The 1992 General Assembly decision to boycott Nestlé products still stands
and we would encourage members to maintain pressure on Nestlé to look at
other ethical issues relating to marketing and the promotion of baby milk
substitutes. That said, Commitment for Life would not be against a selective
purchase of shares in Nestlé, as long as this was used to enable campaigning
from within (See 5.2)
-
The Fairtrade
Churches Scheme is to be co-ordinated through Traidcraft, supported by the
Fairtrade Foundation. This will ensure continuity and level standards across
the denominations. Traidcraft also hopes to produce resources for use within
churches, which will be most welcome.
8.7 Israel /Palestine.
The repercussions from elections in Israel and Palestine are still unfolding and
may have serious implications for work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Attendance was good at the yearly meeting of activists arranged with
International Relations. Dan Shaham, from the Israeli Embassy, gave a
presentation which made those present aware of the wide gap which exists between
our Church’s position and the policy and outlook of the Israeli government.
Attendees gained an insight into the genuine anxieties prevalent in Israel, but
it seems that on the national political level these are fuelling a denial of
human rights and justice. The need for an ecumenical response from the Churches
has been led by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and taken forward by
EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel), Christian
Aid and Pax Christi who have set up ecumenical dialogue and action. We continue
to support the work of Christian Aid through their partners in both Israel and
Palestine. Parents Circle, a new focus partner, working for dialogue and
reconciliation from both sides of the divide, have offered us greater insight
into the situation. ‘Moving Stories,’ our e-mail newsletter continues to expand
and now reaches over 300 homes. Work on disinvestment and progressive engagement
is continuing through the Ethical Investment Advisory Group (see report from
Mission Council).
8.8 Administration.
The programme remains vibrant and evolving. Thanks must be given to Alison Blick
for all her support, the hard working committee members, Melanie Frew, convenor,
and the loyal, enthusiastic advocates who have been most welcoming and
supportive during this time of change. Commitment for Life’s success is due in
large measure to Anne Martin, who moved on at the end of October 2005. We thank
her for her enormous contribution, dedication and determination to bring justice
to all God’s people. Helen Warmington’s role as MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign
officer for six months added much to the high profile placed on the issues by
the Church. We thank Church and Society for supporting this venture financially.
Thanks must also be expressed to Revd Neil Thorogood for his enthusiasm for the
scheme whilst serving as convener until August 2005. We wish to acknowledge,
with appreciation, the special link with Christian Aid and the help we receive
from them. It has been good to see even stronger links now forming with the
World Development Movement.
8.9 The number of
participating churches remains steady at around 611, the biggest area of
growth being in the Scottish Synod. The income for 2005 of £555,966 was slightly
down on the previous year. This was due, in part, to generous giving to the many
emergency appeals of 2005. After administration costs and 10% of income going to
the World Development Movement for their political advocacy. Christian Aid
received 75%, which is divided equally amongst the four partner countries. We
continue to support complementary charities. Grants in 2005 went to the Trade
Justice Movement, People and Planet, Baby Milk Action, EAPPI, Banana Link,
Jubilee Dept Campaign, Fairtrade Foundation and Landmine Action. Kees Maxey
represents Church and Society and Commitment for Life on the board of Jubilee
Debt Campaign; Revd Paul Dean represents Commitment for Life and International
Relations on the EAPPI board.
8.10 Ecumenical
links are increasing, especially since the end of 2005. Churches are working
ecumenically to promote social justice issues. Joint mailings from Commitment
for Life and the Methodist Relief and Development Fund go out regularly to joint
United Reformed and Methodist Churches. We continue to build stronger
co-operation through links on our respective web pages. Fairtrade continues to
be viewed as promoting strong ecumenical links, as does our support of the
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel.
8.11 Conclusion. Jim
Wallis, author of God’s Policies, spoke recently about how the prophets appeared
in the Bible when there were huge disparities in living standards. Today,
Commitment for Life seeks to be prophetic in enabling churches to respond, both
financially and by social action, to expose the unjust systems that favour the
rich and keep the majority of God’s people poor.
Resolution 17
Peacemaking: A Christian Vocation
General Assembly
adopts the Report ‘Peacemaking: A Christian Vocation’ and commends it for study
by Synods and local congregations, and as a helpful guide for church leaders who
may be called upon for comment on the ethical considerations relating to war and
peace.
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General Assembly Report 2006
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