c. 1997 Religion News Service

LONDON _ A special panel of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, warning of the growing gap between the rich and poor, has called for radical changes in the nation’s economic system to end the”running sores”of unemployment and poverty.

The 196-page report,”Unemployment and the Future of Work,”has been issued in the midst of the British election campaign, which ends May 1. But top church officials denied the timing has anything to do with the election.”The followers of Jesus Christ have always sought to model his loving concern for the outcasts and marginalized …”said Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey in a statement.

Anglican Bishop David Sheppard of Liverpool, who chaired the panel that wrote the report, denied it was released to provide support for the more leftist opposition Labor Party. However, he did acknowledge it was made public during the campaign”for maximum impact.” The report, drafted by a committee that included experts from industry, academia and social services in addition to the church leaders, sharply criticized the growing gap in Britain between the rich and poor and called for economic reforms to provide jobs for all able to work.”The challenge to society is to create good work for all,”the report said.”This means more than just the theoretical opportunity to work, more than just access for all in principle to the work that is on offer. It also means an outcome in which people actually do have work to do, appropriate to their abilities, preferences, and other responsibilities.”We could call it a right to work, or even a right to earn, but it is equally a duty to work and to support oneself,”it added.”A better way of putting it would be to say that we all have a calling to serve one another and no one should be denied the opportunity to carry it out.” The report said Britain was faced with a choice between job creation and lower taxes.”Sacrifice is necessary in seeking the common good,”it said.”We do not think that the deep running sores of unemployment and poverty can be healed without some sacrifice on the part of those of us who are better off.” Patrick Coldstream, the panel’s chairman and former director of the Council for Industry and Higher Education, told a Wednesday (April 9) news conference that real unemployment in Britain is twice the government’s official estimate _ 4.5 million of a total population of 58 million, rather than the official figure of 2.3 million.”Wherever we went, we found increasing riches and increasing poverty side by side. … We do not feel that these contrasts between prosperity and deprivation ought to be put up with.” But Coldstream also said the changes called for by the church report would amount to reversing long-term trends and could not be accomplished without re-ordering political priorities.”We hope that the voice from the churches can help in changing that climate,”he said.

Both of Britain’s main political parties _ the governing Conservative party headed by Prime Minister John Major and the opposition Labor party headed by Tony Blair _ are promising lower taxes during the campaign.

The report challenged that tactic:”When so many are living in poverty and unemployment, it is wrong to give priority to the claims of those who are already well off,”it said.”None of the political parties has put forward a program which offers much real hope of improvement to those in the greatest need.” Among the specific policies called for by the report are:

_ Reform of the tax system to encourage more employment in the private sector;

_ Increased public sector employment, financed by higher taxes, along with a program for creating”good”jobs for the long-term unemployed;

_ A national minimum wage;

_ Better working conditions and”fairer bargaining over pay.” Sheppard was a bit more optimistic than Coldstream about the possibility for change.”The working party has persuaded me that a solution is possible,”he said.”The enemy is fatalism _ the attitude that there is nothing you can really do.” But the report is about more than economic realities, Sheppard added.”Underneath social and political issues lie spiritual truths about men and women knowing themselves to be valued. … The churches contact with all sections of society gives them both a close knowledge and a clear duty to examine these large questions.”

MJP END NOWELL