Burnham

United

Reformed

Church

A COVENANT WITH THE
WORLD'S POOR

Why such a covenant?

We believe that.....

	the Church should be concerned with the political, social and economic structures of society.
	the promotion of justice and peace is the essence of our Christian faith.
	Justice and peace are integral to faith because God, who has made a covenant with us, is a God of compassion for all creation.

This being the case then surely compassion must be the distinctive quality of the people of the covenant.

It may also be true that ultimately the only thing that any of us can change is ourselves. But as more of us change so perhaps the wider reality may also change. This Covenant with the World's Poor is offered as a means of changing ourselves.

1. WEALTH AND SHARING 

We, the people of Burnham United Reformed Church, promise: 

C                     to plan, promote and celebrate an annual frugal lunch or fast day

C                     to respond to emergency appeals in times of disaster

C                     to give a minimum of 1% of annual church income (from all sources) to the poor

C                     to use our skills to help others

C                     to give time to visiting the sick, the housebound, asylum-seekers, refugees, etc.

 2. CAMPAIGNING 

We promise

C                     to support actively Commitment for Life

C                     to support actively the Jubilee Debt campaign  for the cancellation of unpayable debt

C                     to support actively the Christian Aid's various campaigns           

C                     to set up a Traidcraft Group and actively promote the sale of fairly traded goods

C                     to use fairly traded tea and coffee at all church events

C                     to support local ecumenical initiatives aimed at tackling local poverty issues

C                     to invite regularly speakers from agencies working with the poor to speak at worship or at meetings  so as to increase our understanding of poverty issues

C                     to lobby our local MPs for an increased and effective overseas aid programme

 3. PRAYER AND WORSHIP

We promise 

C                     to include prayers for the poor as a regular feature of our prayer life

C                     to integrate a justice and peace perspective into our preaching of the gospel

And we promise to renew these covenant promises annually at Harvest Festival.