Covenant economics and the poor

Yesterday I spoke at the Lenten series of All Saints Anglican, St. Joseph’s Catholic and St. Paul’s Eastern United churches. This series brought together three congregations in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood for reflections on covenant. My visit yesterday focused on covenantal economics and poverty.

I spoke first about our current economic situation of greed, inequality and poverty, and how it is the opposite of covenantal economics. A covenant is a binding obligation to meet a commitment. Covenant economics embrace care for people and for the land.

As part of covenant economics, we are called to love our neighbour as ourselves, and to practice justice in every part of our lives. This must include action on poverty, as well as revisioning our economic structures and how they fit with our social structures and the environment. You can read my presentation here.

This was followed by an excellent discussion with the group on what poverty looks like in Canada, what causes and perpetuates poverty, and what we, as people of faith, are called to do about poverty. We talked about the need to find an economics of enough, where there is not so much pressure to accumulate and to hoard resources, but where everyone can have enough. We also talked about the need to recapture our sense of community –feeling connected to our neighbours, and seeing our well-being as intertwined.

We discussed the challenges of today’s economy, in which there is no mobility for those who are poor. Retraining is not always an option and doesn’t always work for the unemployed. There aren’t enough jobs for everyone. Supports such as social assistance and Employment Insurance don’t provide enough to make ends meet. Barriers prevent people from moving easily between social assistance and work. And those who live in poverty accumulate disadvantages that put them ever farther behind.

We talked about the role of Christians and churches in advocacy, calling for structural changes that will eradicate poverty. But we also talked about other actions that people of faith can take beyond the political sphere, including changing the wind (changing the context in which our economic structures are created and reinforced) and reflecting seriously on these issues as a faith community, and including time for that reflection as part of our worship.

We had a great dialogue, and everyone left with plenty of food for thought.