Christ Church United Reformed Church believes strongly
in campaigning for and promoting issues of social justice
and below are examples of some of the ways that we do this:
Overseas Aid
We support Christian Aid Week and Commitment for Life, as well as giving financial support to a number of other organisations , click on the links about to find out more.
Fair Trade
We are a Fairtrade church and regularly sell Traidcraft products. Discover the Christ Church Fairtrade webpage, and the Rayleigh Fairtrade Town initiaitive, in which Christ Church is actively involved.
World Peace
Supporting activities organised by Southend Peace Group, the Week of Prayer for World Peace and One World Week.
Sustainable Development
For our Lent project, we collect silver coins to donate to WaterAid and other similar charities. Small sums are able to relieve considerable suffering by the provision of clean water.
Harvest For The Hungry project
We supported Oxfam by collecting money to purchase animals and materials for use on farms in developing countries. We were also able to provide for the teaching to enable the best use to be made of these resources.
Trade Justice
Our church is supporting Christian Aid’s Trade For Life campaign to bring about fair international trade rules that do not discriminate against poor countries. This is supported through sending postcards to key decision-makers such as the Prime Minister and Chancellor. We have, in the past, supported the Scales For Justice event, which involved lobbying our local MP to support the campaign and holding a tug-of-war in Rayleigh High Street to illustrate the inequality of international trade. Several members were closely involved in the Make Poverty History campaign.
Environmental Issues
As Christians we believe that the world that we live in and therefore everything that makes up this world is given by God. It is our responsibility as his children to be good stewards of the bountiful resources that God has provided. The theological phrase is ‘The Integrity of Creation’. It means taking seriously the issues that range across biodiversity, sustainability, and protecting and enhancing the environment in which we live for this and future generations.
We are trying to make our church as ‘green as possible, using study modules from the Ecocongregation. We are already recycling as much as possible and using energy saving light bulbs where we can. In 2011 we installed a 9.88kwp Solar Panel system. We aim to use as many eco-friendly products as is workable. Some of our house groups have been undertaking bible study using ecocongregation resources.