The Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) is a partnership between the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church.
The purpose of JPIT is to help the Churches to work together for peace and justice through listening, learning, praying, speaking and acting on public policy issues. They offer excellent information about current issues and resources for individuals and churches.
The work of the team aims to:
-Share the message in words and action that political engagement is integral to Christian discipleship
-Understand what churches need in order to speak and act prophetically and prayerfully on key issues of justice and peace
-Equip, energise, affirm, support and resource our churches, at both local and denominational level, in their engagement with politics and public issues
-Enable our Churches to speak together with a distinctively Christian voice in promoting justice and campaigning on public issues
-Build deeper coalitions and partnerships to further these outcomes locally, regionally, in the nations, and internationally
The partners in JPIT have a shared understanding of justice and its theological basis, as set out in these principles:
God made humans in the image of God, each worthy of equal value and dignity.
The search for justice entails treating others with respect, and may involve reclaiming lost worth.
God desires the flourishing of creation and human community within it.
The search for justice does not diminish or limit the flourishing of others but seeks to enable it.
God consistently shows a bias to people experiencing poverty and those who are excluded.
The search for justice must attend to those who live in poverty, and those who are marginalised in other ways, as a priority.
God entrusts those in (with) power with a special responsibility for upholding justice.
Those seeking justice will encourage and challenge those with power to fulfil their vocation.
God calls all people and nations actively to work for peace and justice, liberation and transformation.
It is never just someone else’s responsibility. We all have a part to play.
God calls us to live in hope and in ways that reflect God’s character and the pattern of God’s kingdom.
Thus, seeking justice involves honesty and truth, and may demand protest and resistance, restitution, forgiveness, reconciliation and ultimately transformation.