Rosie Venner is a member of St Martin’s Church, London Road Worcester and is also Director of Movement Building at The JustMoney Movement, a national Christian Charity which works towards a fairer, greener world.
“The charity is all about where money, faith and justice interconnects,” said Rosie. “We want individuals and churches to be exploring issues like how ethical their banking is and how our tax system might be made more fair for the poorest in society.” Before re-branding a couple of years ago, JustMoney Movement was known as the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, which was established in 1989. It worked to encourage a better understanding of the power of church investments and to hold companies, particularly oil and mining companies, to account when money was invested in communities around the world.
Dick Johnson, Faith at Work Development Officer in our Diocese, and lead chaplain at West Mercia Police and Hereford & Worcester Fireand Rescue Service, has been a Trustee of the charity for a number of years. He said: “Industrial Mission played a key part in setting up and running the charity, which is why I ended up getting involved. We encouraged people to buy some shares in a company and then attend the AGM to ask questions about the ethics of their investment. This is still an approach which we take today so that we can work with companies to help them improve how money is used across the world.”
Members of JustMoney Movement sit as observers on the Church Investors Group to help ensure money is invested as ethically as possible. They also have a number of campaigns which churches can get involved with including the Big Bank Switch to encourage individuals to switch to greener banks, petitioning for greener, fairer pensions and encouraging people to write to their MPs on tax justice issues. Each year the charity marks Good Money Sunday (this year on 12 October), Tax Justice Sunday (in June) and publishes their Greener, Fairer Banking Guide for Churches.
Rosie continued: “The Church still has quite a weighty voice in the investment world, where we are seen as offering a moral perspective. Locally, we can make a difference too. If all of our congregation members switched to more ethical and climate-friendly banking, and looked at where our pension funds are investing, we would have a considerable impact as a community.”
JustMoney Movement works in partnership with other charities such as Operation Noah, Christian Aid, USPG, the Student Christian Movement and A Rocha. They also work alongside the Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers (ACAT).
“Our work has many links with Eco Church as we can support churches and individuals to make greener financial choices. We want to make it as easy as possible for those who are volunteers to make a difference in their churches and decide how to apply their faith and values to their money. We’d love, for example, for churches to switch to a greener bank or to make the ‘Green Investment Declaration’, committing to invest at least 5% in climate solutions and telling people they’re doing it. As a charity we also play an advocacy role, going back to the more ethical banks to let them know what churches need from them to be able to switch their accounts,” said Rosie.
“Our ultimate goal is that the system as a whole will be oriented towards a fairer, greener economy so that people don’t have to think about making a choice. However, until that time, we can offer resources to help people make ethical financial choices and write to their MP on fairer, greener finance issues; campaigning in a gentle way to promote change.”
JustMoney Movement can support parishes with speakers, study days or practical help in the area of ethical finances. They are developing an introduction to economic justice for churches which will be rooted in scripture for small groups to use. Find out more on their website (justmoney.org.uk) or contact Dick Johnson (dickjohnson@faithatwork.org.uk), or Rosie Venner (rosie.venner@justmoney.org.uk)
