Rediscovering the heart of the Gospel

What can we do to make concerns for tackling UK poverty centre-stage in our churches' lives? How can we be more Just Churches in our worship, our work with children, our personal lifestyles, our local communities and our wider political engagement?

Concerns for tackling poverty and social justice are at the heart of the Gospel. There is a rich biblical tradition from the Old Testament prophets through the Gospels and New Testament. This has been carried forward in differing ways by all the major Christian traditions to the modern day.

Just Church draws on existing resources for promoting social justice, and links them with wider understandings of mission and ecclesiology across the denominational and theological spectrum: from Catholic social teaching, through the URC's "five marks of mission" and the Anglican "mission-shaped church", to the new evangelical emphasis on "integral mission". There are also rich reflective and worship resources, including materials from the Iona Community and across the theological and liturgical spectrum.

By its nature, poverty in the UK is largely hidden. It does not mostly involve people sleeping rough, starving or in absolute poverty. Responding to poverty on our own doorstep - even in a society where inequalities between rich and poor continue to grow - is no less a challenge than promoting trade justice for people in poverty on the other side of the globe.

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