Lancashire Church leaders to make social justice pledge

On October 14 church leaders from across Lancashire will renew their covenant with each other by signing a pledge of support for social action and social justice.

The leaders, from many Christian denominations, will sign the pledge at The Foxton Centre, Preston, which is a Christian-based social action project doing cutting-edge work with some of the most marginalised members of the local community. It has operated for 45 years.

Church leaders signing on the day include: Fr Peter Hopkinson, Ecumenical Officer for the RC Diocese of Salford and Fr Chris Loughran, Ecumenical Officer for the RC Diocese of Lancaster; Rev Richard Church, Moderator of the North Western Synod of the United Reformed Church; Rev Paul Davis, Chair of the Lancashire District of the Methodist Church; Bishop Geoff Pearson, the Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Lancaster and Rev Tim Presswood, Transitional Regional Minister of the North Western Baptiand st Association, Major Mark Billard, Divisional Director for Evangelism of the North Western Division of the Salvation Army; Pat Golding, representative of The Lancashire Central and North Area Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Also attending are representatives from Together Lancashire and the Preston Christian Action Network.

The pledge reads:

"We, the leaders of the Churches in Lancashire, renew our covenant together and pledge our support for the many excellent faith-based social action projects around the county.

"We will seek to listen to and prioritise the voices of poor and marginalised people in our communities.

"We call on policymakers to tackle the problems of poverty and hunger, through measures such as a Living Wage and review of zero-hours contracts, and to ensure that the welfare state once again provides a robust defence against destitution."

Helen Boothroyd, of Churches Together in Lancashire, said: "At a meeting earlier this year, Lancashire church leaders decided they wanted to make a public renewal of their existing covenant with each other through a commitment to social
justice.

"They wanted to do this at a key social action project, in order to explicitly ground the ecumenical commitment in Lancashire towards the real needs of communities in the county."