Healing Poverty: A Reflection from the Commission on Justice and Peace of the Canadian Council of Churches

Poverty has been a focus of the Commission on Justice and Peace of The Canadian Council of Churches for decades. As the Government of Canada consulted on a Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Commission engaged in its own conversations over several meetings. We now offer this reflection as one way for communities of faith to engage in dialogue and action for a faithful response to overcoming the poverty that is all too widespread in Canada.

While this document cannot explore every dimension of the complex reality of poverty, we hope that when you share your insights with others in community settings you will find your minds and hearts inspired as ours did when first presented with the principles of Abundance, Resilience and Trust (ART). The realities of voluntary poverty, economic in-equality, and systemic marginalization of certain people, are some of the possible directions that are not explored in this paper but you may also want to consider. Discussion questions, resources and further readings can be found at the end of this document. A Suggested Actions document accompanies this reflection and may be of use in your communities’ work together.