What Can My Church Do?

Raising Awareness

If your church is new to debt issues -- or if it participated in Jubilee 2000 but thinks that the issue is now resolved -- it might be good to raise awareness of what the ongoing issues are, perhaps through

• including prayers about debt in theyour regular services or planning a full service around debt,
• inviting a speaker to talk during and/or after a service,
• using some Bible studies about debt in your home group,
• displaying material about debt in the church, or
• including a theological reflection or news about one of the latest campaigns in your service leaflet or church magazine

You can find the resources for all of these in our praying and preaching section or by contacting CCOW or JDC. The prayer page also has a link to Merryn Hellier's "Praying in Public Places," a prayer walk in which church groups visit local surgeries or hospitals, schools and other locations to reflect on and pray about the impacts of debt on people in developing countries. It's a powerful service -- and act of witness. 

Jubilee Congregations

If your church is ready to make a commitment to ongoing prayer and action on debt, consider becoming a Jubilee Congregation.  Jubilee Congregations agree to "affirm the aims of the Jubilee Debt Campaign in their work to free poor people and countries from the burden of unjust and unpayable debt, pray for justice for the world’s poorest communities, provide a contact person to facilitate education and action on debt, make an appropriate annual donation for the work of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, and take at least one action a year on debt as a congregation." In return, the Jubilee Debt Campaign undertakes to resource the church by sending an action pack and certificate, news updates four to six times a year, and information about worship materials on the JDC website. You can find out more and sign up at the JDC website page on Jubilee Congregations.

Whatever you do, if your church has partnership links with an area that is affected by debt, it may be particularly effective to focus on what is happening in that area. For example:

• the Wessex Synod of the United Reformed Church is linked with Zambia. Jubilee Zambia has plentiful material explaining what the impact of debt on Zambia has been, and further stories can be found through the Jubilee Congregations Handbook put together by Jubilee USA and the Anglican Diocese of Bath and Wells, which is also linked with Zambia.

  CCOW also has a more recent piece about debt, the results of debt relief, and the continuing problems with trade that was written by Saul Banda from Jubilee Zambia; portions of this were excerpted in the church materials for Stand Up Against Poverty, and you can receive the full text from CCOW.

• The Mothers' Union in the Diocese of Oxford is linked to several dioceses in Nigeria.  There is a campaign, New Start Nigeria, that focuses on Nigeria's debt.

Contact CCOW if your church has a link with a particular area and you would like information about debt in that area.