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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: Ms Gabrielle Cox Secretary: Revd Peter Brain
Dr Sue Brisley, Revd Kenneth Cox, Mr George Morton, Revd Raymond
Singh,
nominated by Youth and Childrens Work Committee: Revd Kathryn Price
attending by invitation: Mrs Sandra Ackroyd
Preamble
1.1 It has been an
encouragement to those who believe that the “Church and Society
agenda” is an essential element in contemporary Christian witness to
share in discussions around the country during this year on the importance
of social transformation and care for the environment as two of the five
marks of mission featured in “Growing Up”. This committee sees its
work as part of God’s mission and not as “AOB”. Partners in churches
from other lands have little hesitation in requiring both the prayer
meeting and the protest march in their calls to discipleship. The
spirituality of their politics inspires and sustains them, even in times
of trial. Such believers (and there are of course many in our own ranks)
will not hesitate to denounce the powers that be in the name of the Power
that is. Nor will they draw back from giving praise where praise is due -
though Christians, like all believers, do prefer to be in opposition! As
with the other marks of mission, the challenge is first understanding,
then implementation.
1.2 The link between spirituality and politics is being made more overtly by politicians in recent years, paradoxically considering the decline in active church membership all round. Maybe everyone prefers the moral high ground, if only to look down on the others! But what the churches say does seem to matter - and we do try to say what needs to be said. Admittedly there is some electoral calculation in the approaches being made. But the cynic must not have the last word since, as Proverbs puts it, where there is no vision it is the people who perish.
1.3 Our committee report and continuing agenda is set in the vision-free context of twilight Britain and not at the dawn of a bright new century. We are not pessimists but we cannot ignore the dark side of our own society, not to speak of the wider world. For example: the widening divide between rich and poor with as many as a quarter of our children still living below the poverty line; as many as 50 children dying from abuse each year; a vicious xenophobia not far below the suburban surface; thousands of jobs dependent on making small arms and major weapons systems for far-away use; rising rates of suicides among teenagers; so many telephones and so little human communication; and more. Yet it must be said that most are more sinned against than sinning, having lost their way rather than chosen a known dead end, hope-less rather than faith-less in what is for so many a distinctly love-less world.
1.4 Thus, when Church and
Society urges and enables local congregations to engage more urgently with
society and public issues as part of God’s mission this is more than
whistling in the dark; it is at least lighting a few candles. When we all
extend the invitation of a welcoming God, when we share in the struggle
for justice, when we try to care for the earth, when we speak of a deep
truth embodied in Christ Jesus, when we resolve to love, then we know it
will cost but we know it is true. If the prayer meeting and the protest
march belong together then both are painful. And then, when Church and
Society makes so bold as to offer public comment on the mundane political
agenda to those who claim to be listening, we shall discover that our
authority lies not only in the actual vision itself but also in the fact
that this vision is being shared and worked out across the church as we
all participate in God’s transforming mission.
Personalia:
Peter Brain’s vision and energy have been central to the development of the diverse and important work of Church and Society over the past ten years. The Committee thanks him for his hard work and commitment as he moves on to become Moderator of the North Western Synod.
2
Following up 1999 Assembly
2.1 Children Are
Unbeatable (Resolution 44, 1999)
2.1.1 The United Reformed
Church, as a member of the Children Are Unbeatable Alliance, has been
involved in the responses to the Government’s Consultation Document of
January 19, 2000, called “Protecting Children, Supporting Parents”.
All are agreed with that Document’s affirmations that “a failure to
provide guidance and set boundaries is in itself a form of neglect that
can be very damaging to a child” and that “the harmful and
degrading treatment of children can never be justified”. The issue
is, again to quote: “where do we draw the line”.
2.1.2 The Government has
decided not to abolish the legal defence of “reasonable chastisement”
since to do so might appear to criminalise parents for smacking. The
Alliance would much prefer all physical assaults to be declared wrong;
this would be a step towards a culture which did not depend on “might is
right” but set out the ideal of non-violent resolution of all conflicts,
even in the home though many might fall short of the ideal. The Government
is now obliged to redefine “reasonable chastisement”, inevitably
leaving the judges as arbiters of how hard, how long, how painful, etc.
Our submission on this matter refers to the 1999 Assembly resolution and
notes the unsatisfactory nature of the proposals in the Consultation
Document.
2.2 Racial Justice
(Resolution 46, 1999)
2.2.1 Most of the work done
in this field during the year, including following up the resolution which
was passed in the light of the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry (the Macpherson
report), was done by the Revd Marjorie Lewis-Cooper and her network of
advocates or the Churches Commission for Racial Justice (CCRJ). Among
other things, CCRJ have made submissions on the Government’s Race
Relations (Amendment) Bill.
2.2.2 Assembly staff have attended meetings called by the Metropolitan Police and responded to an enquiry from the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Other similar contacts have continued across Britain.
2.2.3 The URC member of CCRJ, Mrs Sandra Ackroyd, chairs the committee responsible for production of material for Racial Justice Sunday. This was formally accepted some years ago by the ecumenical instruments as the second Sunday in September but is still not generally observed.
2.2.4 The Commission on the
Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, to which we made a submission 18 months
ago, should have reported by the time of Assembly.
2.2.5 CCRJ continues to
express on behalf of all the denominations our shared dismay at the
continuing phenomenon of racially-motivated attacks and killings in many
parts of the country. We call on all local churches to demonstrate an
openness and welcome to minority ethnic adherents and members as together
we struggle to build a properly diverse community in our land.
2.2.6 The Committee
unanimously agreed to support the proposed programme of work within and
beyond the United Reformed Church following the three years spent by
Marjorie Lewis-Cooper among us.
2.3 The Middle East
(Resolution 45, 1999)
2.3.1 In February a large party, led by the Moderator and Deputy General Secretary, visited Israel / Palestine under the auspices of the Pilgrim 2000 programme. This was written up in Reform and reported upon at several Synods and District meetings; a report is to be found in Appendix 2. The sense of fellowship with local Christians was especially valuable as was an inter-faith dialogue in Jerusalem. The encounter with a range of Palestinian opinion has allowed participants to correct some common misunderstandings and, more particularly, to appreciate at first hand the efforts being made by our Commitment for Life partner PARC.
2.3.2 During the year the
‘peace process’ has moved in fits and starts with little sign of
meeting the (postponed) deadlines for agreements on Jerusalem, on the
return of Palestinian exiles, on water supply and on security. Both
communities are divided on most of these issues, with both sets of
political leaders under enormous pressure and many people (including the
terrorist organisations) still hostile to any settlement. At the time of
writing the focus is on northern Israel and the vulnerable frontiers with
Syria and Lebanon. But for most Palestinians the issue of Jerusalem is
crucial. It is easier for Birmingham Christians than for Bethlehem ones to
get to church in Jerusalem and the same is true for Muslims. URC
representatives affirmed on several occasions during the year the thrust
of the Assembly resolution that “any settlement ... should honour the
holiness and the wholeness of the city as a shared city in terms of
sovereignty and citizenship”.
2.3.3 During the year we
have shared in discussion on sanctions against Iraq and supported the
ecumenical deputation to the Foreign Office on this matter in March. A
fresh UN Security Council resolution, largely drafted by the UK, was
adopted but has not proved to be the hoped-for breakthrough. The dilemma
remains of assisting the desperate people of Iraq while denying military
advantage to the regime.
2.3.4 We received copies of the consultant’s reports on the Ilusu Dam project from the Government’s Export Credit Guarantee Department and were dismayed to discover that almost no preparation has been made for relocating tens of thousands of people, mainly Kurds, and the flooding of their villages - even less care than the English showed when flooding Welsh villages in the 19th century! There are political implications, too, since neighbouring Arab countries tend to regard the massive project as a “conspiracy” between Turkey and Israel to tighten their regional control. We therefore wrote again to protest that UK public money should not underwrite this particular project, even with a British firm as the lead contractor.
2.4 Genetics
(Resolution 4, 1999)
2.4.1 Following the
deferment of the Synod resolution on Genetically Modified Organisms at
last year’s Assembly, the Environmental Issues Group of Church and
Society held an extra meeting to determine what we might to be doing
directly. In the short term we agreed to promote use of the Methodist pack
“Making our genes fit” (available from URC Bookshop) which
contains Bible studies and discussion starters plus a useful glossary, all
in an attractive format. Revd Dr Andrew Fox, one of the joint editors of
the Methodist pack joined us for the meeting as did URC minister Revd Dr
Neil Messer.
2.4.2 However, at the same
time, the ecumenical Environment Issues Network of CTBI (EIN) decided to
hold a consultation in May at which the parameters of agreement and
disagreement among the churches and church-linked agencies can be
clarified. We shall be urging that EIN meeting to put in hand the
production of a document which we would be pleased to publicise, outlining
the different issues and positions being adopted and pointing to useful
resources (study packs, web sites, etc.). Our group wishes to raise the
awareness of church people at a time when there is so much public lobbying
and campaigning from interested parties.
3
Associated groups
3.1 HIV / AIDS
3.1.1 December brought the end of the period of part-time service by the Revd Justine Wyatt, after her full-time post came to an end two years ago. We are glad that Justine is to continue working in this field in Oxford. The HIV / AIDS Working Group has agreed some new terms of reference. It is chaired by the Revd John Humphreys and now has five other members from different backgrounds.
3.1.2 There is still a need to remind the churches of the prevalence of HIV in our own country and across the world. Last year saw the largest increase in HIV infections since the mid-1980s, 2,941 cases, with more heterosexual people infected than gay men and 20% of new infections among the under-25s.The number of people who are HIV positive in the UK is thought to be around 28,000. Since 1996 the death rate has fallen. Treatment here is extremely costly, quite apart from the vast expenditure on research to stay “one step ahead” of the ever-changing virus. Unmeasured outbreaks of AIDS have decimated whole populations in several developing countries, cutting average life expectation and distorting other development indicators.
3.1.3 The working group
will continue to prepare material around World AIDS Day (December 1), will
keep a list of contact numbers for those needing pastoral advice, and will
ensure that the church as a whole, through Reform or on public occasions,
does not forget this issue nor the very many people involved.
3.2 Peace and
peacemaking
3.2.1 Following an announcement in Reform and a preliminary consultation earlier in the year, around 20 folk attended (with a further 20 apologies) what turned into the inaugural meeting of a United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship last November.
3.2.2 The steering group,
chosen on that occasion, met in January and finalised a statement of
intent: The United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship is a group of
United Reformed Church members and adherents with different approaches to
peacemaking who are united in seeking to discern and obey the urgent call
of God to pursue peace with justice in the world.
3.2.3 A notice inviting
people to become subscribing members of the Peace Fellowship on the basis
of this statement has already generated 60 acceptances; others who are
interested should contact Church and Society in the first instance. The
new Fellowship will affiliate to the Network of Christian Peace
Organisations but will not, as the statement makes clear, be a pacifist
body.
3.3 CTBI Forum
3.3.1 After a gap of over two years, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland have established a four-nation Forum for Church and Society. We are represented on this by the convener and secretary. It will meet twice a year, once outside England. The ideal is to share not only finished work and agreed statements but ideas and drafts and maybe dreams. This implies a willingness to collaborate which the episcopally ordered members of CTBI have not always demonstrated, for reasons of ecclesiology rather than coldness.
3.3.2 CTBI has also
appointed a new Secretary for Church and Society, the Revd John Kennedy,
who had been working for more than 10 years in this field for the
Methodist Church. There now appears to be every expectation that the
churches together will be an effective presence at a time when politicians
of several persuasions are apparently listening to us.
4
Altogether a full year
4.1 The main focus of our pro-active work remains in the field of money and economics.
4.1.1 The sales of the 1999
video pack “For a Rainy Day” are steady but slow, though the
responses are very positive. The committee was encouraged to continue
through a further phase with the following aims:
• To enable church people to make connections between economic affairs, including their own experiences, and the gospel and insights of faith.
• To encourage those who
have been roused by the Jubilee 2000 Coalition campaign to understand that
mass opinion still counts for something and to sustain some of that
momentum for justice and liberation.
• To support the call in
the mission strategy paper “Growing Up” for local churches to
reflect on and engage with their immediate context, in this case the
social and economic conditions of their local community.
• To encourage some local
churches and Districts to go further and become involved in community
economic development or in other schemes.
4.1.2 Our primary concern is to involve local churches in something which would not only raise their own level of awareness but also contribute to some outcomes which they could own. Hence it was agreed that we should begin with a programme of visits to Job Centres by church members in Districts across the country. A later phase will include a survey of current ‘alternative’ economic activity, e.g. fair trading, ethical banking, etc.
4.1.3 The outcomes of this programme are necessarily imprecise at the outset. But it should allow evidence-based comment on aspects of current economic policy and thinking, and thus help us all to continue the discussions foreshadowed in “For a Rainy Day”:
a) on what is “good
work”,
b) on how wide are regional differences,
c) on the wisdom and reliability of a “welfare to work” strategy for tackling poverty,
d) on the various moral and
Christian principles that underpin economic views, etc.
4.1.4 Church and Society
will buy in appropriate skills for the pre-survey preparation, the
management of the actual visits and survey work, the compilation and
interpretation of the resulting database, and the eventual writing up for
a report or organising an event. A steering group is being formed to
monitor and manage this work.
4.2 During the year there
were opportunities to make several representations and submissions to
Government in response to consultation documents of various kinds on a
range of issues. The Secretary and others have participated in several
face-to-face meetings with ministers. In addition to those mentioned
earlier, written submissions were made on reform of the House of Lords, on
welfare reform in general and the proposals around pensions in particular,
on the strategy for international debt relief, on the report “Supporting
Families”, on the Holocaust Memorial Day and on the Freedom of
Information proposals. Most of these submissions may be found on the
Church and Society pages of the URC web site.
4.3 Serious money and time has again been contributed to the Jubilee 2000 Coalition which is in its final year of life, as the name implies.
4.3.1 Contributions from local churches plus grants from Assembly funds and Commitment for Life enabled £11k to go directly from the URC, with a further £50k as a grant from CWM following a joint request by the URC and the Congregational Federation.
4.3.2 Direct action sponsored by the Coalition at HM Treasury and at the Japanese Embassy attracted plenty of URC participants. Postcards have also been flooding into the embassies of G8 countries in advance of the next and climactic G8 meeting in Japan due soon after the General Assembly meeting. Moves last year by the British Government were welcomed, especially the declaration that bi-lateral debt would be written off for those countries receiving multi-lateral remission and the special remission for some particularly hard-hit countries such as Mozambique.
4.3.3 As the basic case for
remission has been slowly accepted in recent years by governments and
international agencies, attention has been focused on the underlying
purpose of the whole campaign, the reduction of world poverty of
which debt remission is but the start. The need for careful monitoring of
funds released to developing countries through debt remission to avoid
corruption or misuse was always part of the Jubilee 2000 platform. It has
assumed extra importance as such remission begins to happen. The British
Government is in the forefront of the international push for a reduction
by 50% of those living in desperate poverty across the world by 2015, even
as the overall numbers of such people continues to rise rapidly. Clare
Short has committed the Department for International Development to this
grand strategy. If the notion of “jubilee” as liberation means
anything, it must sustain all of our commitment - our faith and our hope
and our love - beyond an arbitrary chronological threshold. In that
spirit, Commitment for Life will continue to focus on this issue.
5 In one
world
5.1 Other international concerns have been addressed jointly by the Secretary and the Revd Philip Woods, Secretary for International Relations, who both continue to represent the church on the CTBI International Affairs Liaison Group (IALG), attending alternately. Generally speaking they split the international affairs remit between them, with Philip leading on the primarily geographical concerns and Peter on the issue-based ones.
5.2 Whether geographical or
issue-based the concerns do not seem to change much from year to year.
Sadly wars and conflicts go on. Civil wars cease in one place (e.g.
Bougainville) only to erupt in another (e.g. Indonesia) or in several
others. We watch from the sidelines, often knowing through contacts with
our partner churches some of the people caught up in the human tragedy
which is unfolding before us. Some tensions or conflicts are not so remote
either; the rivalry between India and Pakistan, which has boiled over on a
number of occasions in the past year, is felt very acutely in many of
Britain’s Indo-Asian communities.
5.3 The riots in Seattle in
November brought to prominence the World Trade Organisation and a whole
range of issues connected to a greater or lesser extent with globalisation.
Beyond Jubilee 2000 there are some very significant issues of economics
and the environment to consider and to reflect upon ethically – see 3.3
above. Doing so from a position of privilege does not make this easy as
many of us are the beneficiaries of today’s economic systems and
dependent on them for our future well-being. The continuing campaigning of
bodies such as World Development Movement (directly linked with us through
Commitment for Life) allows us to understand more and act.
5.4 Concern about human
rights has never been far from the news. China, along with Myanmar and
Afghanistan, to name a few places, continue to make the headlines with
actions against their own peoples. Many people within the church quietly
and determinedly protest these abuses and show their support for the
victims as they participate in the campaigns of Amnesty International and
other similar groups.
5.5 The debate about the
future shape and character of the European Union goes on with the
launch in February of another Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC), with an
agenda largely determined by what was not achieved in the last IGC and the
pressing nature of EU enlargement. With the prospect of a European Union
of over 20 countries the mechanisms and institutions originally designed
for a Community of six are badly in need of overhaul. Alongside this there
is for Britain the debate about the Euro. Having published in 1993 “The
United Reformed Church - a European Church”, we are still asking how
far are we all willing to throw our lot in with the European Union? In the
face of globalisation is there any alternative? We hope to hold a fringe
meeting at Assembly on this topic.
5.6 For most of these
issues and questions there is no specifically ‘Christian’ solution
other than to follow Micah’s injunction to “do justice, love
compassion and to walk humbly with our God”. Our responses are
driven by specific contexts and
often constrained by the apparent impossibility of all the options. It is
only in humility that we venture to say or do anything - and then we
discover that we are not spectators or commentators but that all are
players, visibly and invisibly inter-dependent one with another on God’s
one earth.
Resolution 19 End of
life
General Assembly:
a) invites Church and
Society to gather a working group, including members suggested by other
Assembly committees, to examine the range of issues listed in the Book of
Reports and other related matters associated with the end of life, to work
on some of them and to report in 2002;
b) in particular reaffirms
its belief in and support for the National Health Service as a necessary
expression of our common life.
1.1 Several factors,
some of which are listed below, have led Church and Society to bring this
resolution to seek encouragement and endorsement for further serious work
on a range of apparently disparate issues which are nevertheless connected
in personal experience, in political and economic analysis and in the
perceptions of faith. The current difficulties for the NHS reflect a
deeper and more general crisis in society, especially in the public
sector, as technology continues to advance more rapidly than most
ethicists are able to interpret and more demandingly than taxpayers and
others are willing to pay. Last summer a consultation was convened by
Church and Society at Windermere on “Prioritising in health care”;
the full report (available from Church and Society) shows how a number of
end of life concerns are linked and deserve more attention. 1.2 During that consultation it was agreed that health professionals of several kinds, whose morale is low, deserve our clear support as they wrestle with often intractable problems deriving in the main from rising demand and limited resources.
1.3 It became clear at the consultation that the current treatment of people of all ages (not only the very old) who may be diagnosed as terminally ill or be unable to respond to medication is, for several reasons, in need of careful scrutiny and evaluation. This becomes more urgent as the traditionally implicit trust of patients in doctors is undermined by recent events in Bristol and Hyde.
1.4 Another conclusion from the consultation was that the Church should find ways to challenge the prevalent assumption that death is “a mistake” on someone’s part (medical staff, close family, etc.) with all the tensions, guilt and pressure that assumption generates. 55% of all deaths in Britain occur in hospital, with a further 15% in other institutions. There is a taboo in this area, even among some believers, which is unworthy and damaging.
1.5 The phenomenon of HIV
treatments also raises profound questions. Some people who had been
“prepared to die” are now reprieved, but for how long and at what
cost. A parallel concern is the justice issue of the availability of HIV
treatments in poorer countries.
1.6 The experience of the multi-racial, multi-cultural development worker’s research has revealed considerable ignorance and consequent uncertainty on the part of ministers and others in respect of minority ethnic attitudes to terminal illness, funeral customs and pastoral expectations.
1.7 Ministers often have to
face the dilemma of whether to involve a non-married partner in the
funeral of a church member and how to counsel the family on this issue.
1.8 There is a growing tendency to support and seek to make legally enforceable the documents known as “living wills” or “advance directives”. A resolution at FURY Assembly in 1996 signalled support for this in principle. People who wish to determine what treatment they will receive when no longer capable of clear thought and speech may draft such statements but they have no legal status.
1.9 Linked with several of
these points is growing concern in several quarters at what may or may not
be “euthanasia”, what that term actually signifies, and how the
Biblical commandment not to kill is to be understood.
1.10 In 1999, designated by
the United Nations as the International Year of Older Persons, churches
and church-related bodies, including Church and Society, were involved
with the Debate of the Age, sponsored by Age Concern. This was a
wide-spread public consultation (including a visit to our 1998 Assembly by
the Debate display bus) which produced a number of statements and reports
which are to be presented to Government in the spring of this year under
the heading “Agenda of the Age”. That document, in draft at the time
of writing, echoes several of the points being raised above and challenges
the churches on a number of issues.
2.1 This resolution is
intended to alert the church to a rising tide of concern, to invite spoken
and written comments, to identify the key issues and to enable some
further work to be done. This process might lead, for example, to a review
of church practice in caring for the sick and dying and in the conduct of
funerals; it should offer a chance to contribute to the ongoing public
debate around health care; and it is bound to deepen our awareness and
understanding of the pain and plight of too many of our fellow-citizens.
2.2 Since these linked
concerns cut across the demarcations of church work (social policy,
training, pastoral care, liturgical practice, etc.), we have begun to
consult with other Assembly committees and have received support for this
approach. Some ecumenical bodies will also need to be consulted.
2.3 Church and Society
plans to commission research on some of these matters and will be doing so
over the next year under the guidance of the proposed working group. Hence
we would not expect to be reporting to the Church until 2002.
Resolution 20
Commitment for Life
General Assembly:
a) welcomes the growth in
the number of local churches participating in Commitment for Life and the
consequent increase in funds raised and associated activity, including
production of worship material, a pack for children and campaigning around
debt and fair trade;
b) recognises the personal
effort in promoting the programme put in by advocates in each synod and
the effective work of the Co-ordinator and support staff;
c) notes the fresh emphasis
on the four countries with primary partners in each country;
d) agrees that the
disbursement of Commitment for Life income shall remain at 75% going
overseas via Christian Aid, 10% for World Development Movement, 15% for
Grants and Advocacy, and that Church and Society shall continue to devote
staff time to the programme;
e) therefore urges
non-participating churches, large or small, to join in the Commitment for
Life programme.
1.1 When the Commitment for Life programme first grew out of the former 1% appeal and was launched in 1992, the Church and Society committee decided to make a fuller report to Assembly with accompanying resolution every four years. The re-launch in 1996 led to a substantial increase in the number of participating churches to over 500 at present (30% of churches with 54% of recorded members), with that involvement signifying much more in the life of those churches. This is a rise from under 300 in 1996, with 10% more churches during 1999 and a corresponding rise in income during 1999 of about 10%, to almost £380,000.
1.2 In 1999 the Commitment
for Life sub-committee invited Ms Sara Burns to conduct a small-scale
review of the programme in anticipation of coming to this year’s
Assembly. Her review did not reveal the need for any fundamental changes
in the way the programme is presented and run. This report and
recommendations, and some changes already in hand, owe much to her review.
1.3 During the year we have
been in touch with many local churches whose first instinct and practice
is to support Christian Aid. The Director, Dr Daleep Mukarji, is
proving a good friend and will be addressing the Assembly to spell out
that Commitment for Life is the recommended way for local
URCs to support Christian Aid. Christian Aid see this as a unique model of
partnership with a denomination which has done much to increase awareness
and campaigning as well as fund-raising. We look to Christian Aid, in
particular the Churches Team, for several features of the programme as the
principal ecumenical agency. In short, both Christian Aid and Church and
Society will continue to urge local churches to join in Commitment for
Life.
1.4 This year is the occasion for a complete re-design of the materials supplied to churches, including posters and picture sets, leaflets and prayer cards, videos and specialist items. There will be a display of these at Assembly, with samples already in the hands of local churches. In 1999, in co-operation with the Children’s Advocate and Christian Aid Youth Team, “4 Life” a pack for 8 – 12 year olds was produced and has been much in demand.
1.5 The primary campaigning issues for Commitment for Life during the year have again been within the Jubilee 2000 Coalition on third world debt, and for fair trade including the activities of the World Trade Organisation.
1.5.1 Jubilee 2000, as the name implies, will cease to function towards the end of the year 2000 (see the main report 3.3) but Commitment for Life will keep up the campaigning on the progress of debt remission and the activities of governments and global financial institutions, especially as they affect our partner countries.
1.5.2 On fair trade we have continued to support the Fairtrade Foundation and the special fortnight in March. We were supportive of the non-violent protests over the proposals brought to the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation. Our campaigning partner, World Development Movement, has been lobbying effectively for genuine global fairness and against agreements which would represent the triumph of multi-national corporations over vulnerable national governments and their people.
2.1 The work of the
national Co-ordinator of Commitment for Life, Anne Martin, has kept
our nation-wide team of 40 advocates in good heart and well
supplied with regular mailings. Anne meets them in Synod groups for
briefing and training. Advocates are encouraged – and subsidised - to
attend the ecumenical consultation in May and the annual get-together in
London in January. It is this work of pro-active advocacy and of the Co-ordinator
which has caused Commitment for Life to spread and to take root.
2.2 Each participating
church receives regular mailings during the year, with news of
their partner and a campaign newsletter. The advocates visit both
participating and interested churches – do ask for one to visit you!
3.1 The Commitment for Life materials are all based around an overseas link. Partnership of this kind is meant to help a church identify with people living in a very different context without slipping into a patronising attitude towards them. This year we are ending the link with Olodum in Brazil, mainly because the focus and financing of their work has changed so much since the partnership began.
3.2 It has been decided to refer to the “country focus” and the “primary partner” rather than simply to our “partner organisation”, not least because in certain cases our generous Commitment for Life funding enables Christian Aid to finance the work of other similar organisations adjacent to our own primary partners. This is especially the case with our newest country focus, Jamaica, where there are several organisations which will benefit from our support. The other countries remain Zimbabwe, Palestine and Bangladesh, with our existing primary partners Silveira House, PARC (Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee) and CCDB (the Christian Commission on Development, Bangladesh).
3.3 These links have been strengthened during the past four years year by personal visits including those to Bangladesh (by a FURY group in 1998), to Palestine (on several occasions) and to Zimbabwe (by URC representatives attending the WCC in Harare in 1998). More recently there have been visits from two CCDB staff and visits to PARC, including Pilgrim 2000. There will be a visit from two PARC staff later this year and one for some advocates to Zimbabwe in early 2001. It is significant and important that Commitment for Life visits are included in the exchange visits under the strategic ‘Belonging to the World Church’ programme; deliberately, three of the four countries now linked with Commitment for Life are also home to Council for World Mission member churches.
4.1 In 1999 income for Commitment for Life came to £379,030, more than 11% up on £340k in 1998. An outline of how this money was disbursed was sent to participating churches in February. We kept the WDM grant at 10% of the income and were able to find £5k for Jubilee 2000, as well as £10.5k for One World Week.
4.2 We benefited from the
first contributions made under Millennium Gift Aid (MGA) - over £17,000
in 1999. This will probably peak in January 2001. Please note that it is
still possible to classify contributions of £100 or more made during the
year up to December 31 as MGA, allowing us to reclaim the tax; all
treasurers of participating churches have been sent information on this.
4.3 Good news: from April 2000 tax-efficient giving is being transformed to cover all gifts made to Commitment for Life each year, not only in a lump sum. This replaces covenants and Gift Aid, with special incentives for Give As You Earn. Church treasurers are being briefed on this.
4.4 As the income rises,
advocacy and administration costs do not rise proportionately, thus
releasing more for grants to campaigning and educational bodies. Core
administration of the programme by Church and Society office staff is not
charged against Commitment for Life. Wendy Cooper does most of
this, in addition to her other duties.
5.1 The final paragraph of the resolution points to the ongoing opportunity to take advantage of this programme. Commitment for Life is now part of the mainstream life and mission of the United Reformed Church; it is slowly becoming the ‘norm’ to participate rather than the exception.
5.2 The benefits are
two-way. Certainly the work overseas benefits greatly, as Christian Aid
reports testify. With this support the World Development Movement’s
campaigning is strengthened and a number of other worthy organisations are
also helped. But it must be emphasised how much good this programme can do
for us within the participating churches and as the United Reformed
Church as a whole. Commitment for Life resonates with two of the
‘five marks’ of mission, with a broad-based appeal across age-groups,
theological positions and urban or rural settings. Because it is a modular
programme with plenty of options built in, smaller churches should not
feel overwhelmed nor larger churches bored. Thus, though we do not set
ourselves rigid targets, all those involved in Commitment for Life are
looking to see more churches signing up each year until we seek
a fresh mandate at Assembly in 2004.
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