Finding common ground in the credit crunch

People of faith form a huge constituency, can motivate people to action and are also part of rooted communities which in some instances are beginning to plan for greater economic resilience.

As such, the network of individuals and faith-based organisations that is Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) believes that people of faith should make their contribution to the current search for means of ameliorating the financial and environmental misery experienced around the world, in part because of the effects of the credit crunch.

FiLE has therefore facilitated a process for preparing a shared faiths response to the credit crunch which calls for: non-interest bearing transactions; mutual societies; business accountability to a wider range of stakeholders than shareholders alone; transparent and ethical business practices; and recognition of the role that artists and communities play in generating real wealth.

The overall process that has produced this shared faiths response is one that has included people from the Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain and Jewish traditions in addition to representatives of faith-based and inter-faith organisations. We hope that our modest efforts will be a small part of a much wider process of reflection and restructuring needed to genuinely respond to the issues raised by the credit crunch.

Initial results show the impact that a modest initiative such as this can have. The document was picked up by the Faith Engagement Team in the Department for Communities and Local Government and posted on the G20 London Summit site as part of the Faith Debate section. The full text of our ‘Shared Faiths response’ is also being published in the forthcoming edition of the ‘Faith in Business Quarterly,’ an article on the document has been prepared for the Three Faiths Forum newsletter, and the document has informed a consultation on the issue undertaken by the East of England Faiths Council.

Producing a common statement from a diverse group of people was a considerable challenge and FiLE undertook this project as an experiment to see to what extent there were shared statements that could be made by different faiths on these issues. We found much common ground and the ability to understand similar concepts expressed in differing phrases. The use that has been made to date of our document indicates the wider value of such shared approaches.

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Beth Rowley - Beautiful Tomorrow.