Economic Justice

The United Church of Canada has a long history of advocacy and action for the social well-being of all God's people and the care of creation. At the heart of these concerns are issues of the economy. We can understand the economy as the way we care for our common household, the Earth: how we act with others as faithful stewards in the sharing of God's gifts that sustain all life. This includes the way we organize our human activities to provide food, clothing, shelter, transportation, health, education, and culture.

Whether it be housing, poverty in Canada or globally, questions of food security and sustainable agriculture, or issues of globalization such as trade, debt, and corporate responsibility, we are called to act boldly in the face of widening gaps of inequality between rich and poor and the impoverishment of the Earth itself.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we believe that trade agendas and economic policy must be good for all peoples and the entire Earth community. We believe that powerful decision-makers, such as national governments, international financial institutions, and corporations, must be accountable for the impacts of their economic policies to those who are most marginalized.

The United Church has a long history of prophetic work in speaking up for full participation and equality of women, public health care, the extension of social services, and the restructuring of our economy. This include work done by the United Church’s predecessors before the church’s formation in 1925, and lobbying during the Great Depression of the 1930s for a just social system.

Working with global and Canadian partners, issues of economic justice have been woven through campaigns such as the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative (including the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign) and the Beads of Hope HIV/AIDS campaign.

In recent years, we have deepened our understanding of economic justice by employing a number of "lenses" or "ways of seeing." In particular, we use the term "empire," a word that resonates biblically and theologically, to more deeply analyze the interconnected systems that enrich the few while impoverishing the majority of people and the Earth itself.

We are called to seek justice and resist evil with global church organizations that are working to better understand these connections: the World Council of Churches has created studies on poverty, wealth, and ecology and "Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth" or AGAPE, and several global ecumenical groups work on the Oikotree project.