The Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) represents a joint approach to

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

information, campaigning and advocacy on the part of several

Christian denominations A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

in the United Kingdom.

History

It was formed in 2007 by the

Baptist Union of Great Britain Baptists Together, formally the Baptist Union of Great Britain, is a Baptists, Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didc ...

Methodist Church of Great Britain The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestantism, Protestant List of Christian denominations, Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodism, Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council. M ...

and the

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

. In March 2015 the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

became part of the team, initially for a one-year pilot only, and retains an "associate" involvement. The team's work is overseen by a Strategy and Policy Group made up of senior representatives from each of the three constituent denominations. The objectives of the joint approach are to share working resources, combine campaigning voice and demonstrate practical working together by the member churches 'to live out the gospel of Christ in church and society'. Issues addressed jointly include peacemaking, social justice,

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

s and challenging the UK government to rethink its approach to social security benefit sanctions, supporting the Select Committee for Work and Pensions' call for a full independent review of benefit sanctions policy in their report published in March 2015. Rachel Lampard MBE, former team leader on secondment from JPIT to the Methodist Church in Britain, served as vice-president of the

Methodist Conference The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council. Methodism traces its origins to the evangelical revival le ...

during the year 2016/17.

References

External links

* {{official, https://jpit.uk/ Christian organisations based in the United Kingdom