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Church Enters Partnership on Public Issues

Monday March 9

The Church of Scotland is to enter into a partnership with three other churches in its work engaging with political and social issues.

The Church is joining the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT), a partnership of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and United Reformed Church.

The Associate Secretary of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, David Bradwell, will join the team as part of the arrangement, which is an initial one-year trial.

He said: “We are enthusiastic about the new possibilities that this sharing of expertise and resources will open up to us, as a team of four Churches representing around a million Christians in the UK with a significant history of practical engagement with public issues.”

The JPIT, formed in 2006, fulfils a similar remit to the Church and Society Council: considering Christian responses to a huge range of issues (human rights, ethics, science and technology, gambling and many more); representing the churches at a national level to governments and the media; and helping local congregations understand and become involved in the issues.

The JPIT has previously collaborated with Church and Society on specific projects, most recently on poverty issues and last week’s report on benefit sanctions.

Mr Bradwell added: “From our point of view it will be particularly useful to be part of an organisation that is London-based. Post-referendum, if we want to have a response on reserved matters like nuclear disarmament and asylum, all this is happening in Westminster.

“Particularly on big-picture issues, it’s about information-sharing, being more ecumenically-minded, seeing what we can do together. It will avoid repetition and duplication in our work.”

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