A new report indicates a number of the ways in which churches can, and are, helping those in debt.
Researchers from the University of Durham and the Centre For Theology and Community (CTC) have released a new report which shows the various initiatives which could be taken.
The research included talking to participants of 35 'money talk' events which were held in churches with the aim of getting congregations to talk about money, credit and debt in the wake of the Archbishop of Canterbury's highly publicized promise that the Church would look to compete high-cost lenders out of business.
Building on this work, researchers have a number of recommendations. These include, 'engaging with a wider range of Biblical passages and systematic theological themes associated with money and debt,' considering how churches, 'contribute to or ameliorate any stigma that people may feel about money and debt,' and, 'promoting and distributing resources [on credit and debt] as widely as possible.
The report notes that churches are engaged in a wide range of initiatives including credit unions, debt counselling, money management, community banks and much more. It says the Church is becoming more organised on this issue and there's now a wide level of collaboration between organisations such as Church Urban Fund, Christians Against Poverty, Community Money Advice, the Children's Society, the Trussell Trust, Quaker Social Action and several others.
