God’s blessing in creation is for all. God wills everyone to share in the abundance of creation and to play a part in sustaining it. If this is so, why doesn’t it happen ? Explore with CCMJ the reason why. Be prepared to discover things you may not know. Be prepared to see how things could be so much better for all and for the earth. Remember – Christ has no hands but yours …

The Christian Council for Monetary Justice ….. is an open forum and a network focus  for any seeking Inclusive Justice, rather than an institutionalised organisation. It maintains its efficacy through a weekly open table, a network of some 200 associates receiving the weekly ‘Matters in the Air’, and an annual gathering to appraise our evolution and effectiveness. It seeks to enable people far and wide to stimulate a more general awareness of the pertinence of faith to the political economy of trusteeship for this sacred planet; and in particular to the urgent need to generate monetary reform and a recovery of the Commons as a shared resource.

The fate of most people in times gone by was grim unjust poverty for which charity was often the only, and usually totally inadequate, remedy. Sadly this is still the situation today for millions of people. However, there is a vast difference between times past and today. Today we have the technological capacity to eliminate it. Thus any failure to eliminate poverty can be seen as a failure to serve God and the essence of morality, incumbent on us all, is a duty to work for inclusive structural justice for all.

In the present world of conflict, such inclusive justice can be seen as the only concept capable of uniting people of faith, and of good faith, in an impelling cause – transcending cultural and political boundaries – for the betterment of humankind. To this end the CCMJ and its associates are in dialogue with our brothers and sisters in other traditions that try to hold creative tension between the wholeness of God’s creation and the right relationships of all neighbours in the more-than-human life of this sacred planet .

It is our thrust that in discussions of and between different religious and good faith traditions we encourage the starting with a review of the Human Condition, and only then explore how our traditions do and do not contribute to inclusive justice.  This means we retain a closer adherence to proposals of intrinsic value, with less dependency on the particular descriptive language emerging from any one tradition. The clue to this search lies in Shakespeare’s perceptive quip – ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’. The search for the sweet smell of inclusive justice should lead us into healthy dialogue.

The CCMJ began its existence in Scotland in the late 1950’s with a report produced in May 1962 by the Congregational Union of Scotland called The Christian Doctrine of Wealth. This aroused much public interest, was reprinted several times and finally emerged as “Money – A Christian View”. Through research, CCMJ associates believe that there are many important steps that can be taken to stop poverty increasing, to help people keep out of financial poverty, and make poverty history. If you want to know what these steps are, have a look at the pages on this web site: www.ccmj.org and at a companion sites, www.globaljusticemovement.net and  www.constitutionalists.uk

CCMJ believes that there are four ogres in the roots of all our great and growing dangers and dilemmas:- • an unquestioning acceptance of the economic status quo • a profound mal-distribution of land, assets and resources • an inordinate legal power given to corporations • a fraudulent, irreligious banking, money/credit debt system- all enshrined in inappropriate forms of permanent hierarchies, exercising ‘power-over others. CCMJ believes in ‘power-with’ and so encourages people to explore for themselves the mystery of poverty in a world of actual and potential abundance, by dialogue, association and moral support,

What CCMJ associates support to make poverty history includes: • a profound questioning of usury (interest) in contemporary society; • respect for real wealth – being life itself; • genuine investing in communities where risks and rewards are truly shared; • making all trade fair trade; • giving social and political priority to a living income for all; • developing interest free pension systems; • advocating open capital and asset-based financing; • proposing new ways of providing housing for all; • campaigning against privatisation of public assets; • working for democracy and localisation; evolving a political process such as that outlined in an associated initiative the Independent Constitutionalists seee   www.constitutionalists.uk

Join other associates in this open Christian exploration of effective change:

Annual donation £10, or what you can afford. You can write to: Canon Peter Challen, Flat 12, Manormead, Tilford Road, Hindhead, Surrey GL26 6RA –  peterchallen@gmail.com

If you would like to download the above information as a word document click here:
CCMJ-trifold.doc(44 KB)

Feel free to use this REPLY FORM

and post it with your subscription to Canon Peter Challen, Flat 12, Manormead, Tilford Road, Hindhead, Surrey GU26 6RA.

Name ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Organisation (if any) ………………………………………………………………………….
Address …………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Phone………………………………………………………………………………………………
Email………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Please add here any information you wish about your own projects or the reasons you are interested in the work of CCMJ.

CCMJ welcomes any opportunity you can create to raise the issues we pursue