Being part of a much bigger family means that Baptist voices can be amplified and heard regionally, nationally and even globally. Through our membership of the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT), we are able to share our concerns and findings with the government of the day. These are some of the ways we did this over the last year.

 

Last August we joined faith groups, charities and politicians in calling on the government to take urgent action to bridge the cost of living gap faced by the lowest income families.

The call responded to a report ‘Is cost of living support enough?’, launched by JPIT on Sunday 7 August, which was endorsed by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.   

Written by poverty expert and Loughborough University Professor Donald Hirsch, the report revealed the gap between the support the government is currently offering to households and the anticipated rise in living costs.  

It assessed the extent to which cost of living measures announced in May would compensate for three blows experienced by millions of low income families: cuts in Universal Credit, inadequate uprating of benefits with accelerating inflation in April and the further rise in the energy cap anticipated in October.  

It showed that the package of support measures fell £1600 short of making up for these losses.

The report was endorsed by 56 charities, faith groups and politicians, many of whom provide front-line support for families hit by rising costs, including the Trussell Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Child Poverty Action Group. General Secretary Lynn Green was among the report’s signatories.  

The groups, supported by Mr Brown, urged the government to consider appropriate measures to bridge the shortfall in family finances, which was only anticipated to rise into the winter months.

Early 2022 saw Baptists work alongside other faith groups to express serious concerns about the Nationality and Borders Bill.

Leaders representing the six major faith groups in the UK wrote to the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him to reconsider the Bill, in a letter coordinated by the Joint Public Issues Team and published at the end of February.

More than 1000 faith leaders signed the letter, including General Secretary Lynn Green and 150 Baptists. The signatories represented the six major faith groups in the UK.

The letter called on the Prime Minister to make substantial changes to the Bill. These include abandoning the government’s plans to criminalise and restrict the rights of all people arriving in the UK seeking refugee protection outside pre-arranged schemes, including those coming via irregular routes, such as by boats or lorries. The signatories said this policy was made ‘without a basis in evidence or morality’.  

Their letter went on to state: ‘While there is still conflict and injustice in the world, there will always be desperate people needing to seek sanctuary from war, persecution and suffering. We cannot close our door on them, but this Bill does just that.  

‘We assert that the values that bind UK citizens together, especially those concerning human dignity and life, will be fundamentally damaged by this Bill.’  

The Nationality and Borders Bill received Royal Assent and became an Act of Parliament on 28 April 2022.

The United Nations climate conference COP27 which took place in November 2022 concluded with a new deal on Loss and Damage but a lack of ambition on cutting carbon emissions. Lynn Green and former President Dave Gregory joined leaders from the Methodist Church in Britain and the United Reformed Church in releasing a statement which highlighted these aspects.

‘We are grateful for the vital commitment in Sharm el-Sheikh to establish a Loss and Damage facility... It is low income countries that are frequently the worst affected by climate related disasters. They simply do not have adequate resources to rebuild shattered infrastructure and livelihoods. COP27 has seen recognition of the need for compensation for loss and damage rise much higher on the global agenda. We commend States and regions... that have committed early funding to support those who have seen their livelihoods or houses destroyed.’

However, the statement continued: ‘As the recent UN Environment Programme report has pointed out, limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees requires global emissions to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030. Policies implemented so far suggest that we could be heading for a catastrophic 2.7 degrees of warming.  

‘God’s creation is precious and is vital for the flourishing of all life. We lament the lack of urgency and will to co-operate to address this crisis. COP27 shows that governments have yet to loosen the chains of past practice and vested interests.’