Public Statement on October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Churches across Canada are again joining the Dignity for All Campaign, co-led by Citizens for Public Justice and Canada Without Poverty, to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17.

To help commemorate this day, Christian Reformed Church in North America leaders have released this statement:

In church and community relationships in Canada and around the world, we encounter beautiful children of God who are in poverty. In their voices and experiences we are privileged to experience Jesus and to be the body of Christ in the gospel ministry of good news to the poor. On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty we lament poverty and injustice as corporate moral wounds that have disproportionate effects on people of colour, displaced people, people with disabilities, women and children; we affirm the urgency of systemic and prophetic responses* ; and we celebrate and affirm the faithful public witness efforts of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank I Care campaign (international food security), and the Citizens for Public Justice Dignity for All campaign (for a poverty reduction strategy in Canada).

Signed,

Darren Roorda, Director of Canadian Ministries
Ida Mutoigo, director, Canadian director, World Renew
Ron Vanden Brink, director, Diaconal Ministries Canada
Andy DeRuyter, chair, CRCNA Canada Corporation
Mike Hogeterp, director, Centre for Public Dialogue

* If we avoid the issue of structural change, Christians would consign themselves to fighting the symptoms of poverty and hunger instead of getting at the disease itself. While the church is unable to provide relief to the hungry masses of the world, it can certainly advocate for systemic reforms that would significantly improve the lot of millions in poverty. Moreover, if the church would avoid calling for changes to unjust structures, then it would be guilty of proclaiming a truncated gospel. A message that fails to proclaim our radical liberation through Jesus Christ from every configuration of sin greatly limits the stature of our Deliverer.  (For My Neighbor's Good, Synod 1979)