March 2, 2023
Today, we meet Rachel Lampard. Rachel was vice-president of the Methodist Conference in 2016/17, and is currently on secondment from the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) to lead the Walking with Micah project with the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
At All We Can, we believe in justice, and we are proud that our supporters care deeply about our role—both as individuals and as churches—in seeking justice across the world.
But what’s the best way to achieve it? If we’re going to take action amongst our churches and communities, don’t we need to think about how that will work?
On our February podcast, we spoke to Rachel about the Walking with Micah project, and the principles that underpin it:
‘For the last 18 months, a lot of it has been about listening. We’ve been listening to people in churches, people beyond churches, people experiencing injustice— and groups, like like All We Can, getting a sense of what’s going on in the world at the moment to try and to discern what it is that we’re called to do. What’s emerging out of this is the three P’s.’
‘The first P is around principles, what are the principles that underpin our understanding of what’s God’s justice looks like? Can we talk about these? Can we articulate these in a way that is clearer and more confident, and helps us to be more confident when we’re trying to engage with issues of injustice as Christians as as Methodists, that’s the first P around principles.’
‘The second P, as you mentioned, is around priorities. We can’t do everything. What is it that we’re called to do? What is it that is, is ours to do?’
‘Finally, the third P is around practices. What is it that we’re called to do? How do we make sure that our practices for justice are sustainable, and transformative and deeply rooted in God?’
‘In terms of those three priorities, it’s been absolutely fascinating trying to hear the echoes of the things that have been done over Methodist history.’
‘Many times we’ve done things that we are not proud of, but we can (still) find echoed through our history of these, these golden threads, things that really still make sense to us now, as Methodists—around poverty, around climate change or climate crisis around refugees, discrimination, and peace. The The hope is not that we will do everything around all of those enormous issues. But within each of those, we will feel called, as people and as Methodists, that there will be something that is ours to do.’
‘That might be at a local level, a way of responding to local need. It might be a form of advocacy or campaigning. It might be supporting groups like All We Can.’
‘These are ways of enabling us to reach a vision of God’s kingdom that is embodied through these different priorities.’
Feeling inspired? Listen to our full February podcast, available online on Spotify and all major streaming platforms!
Check out the inaugural Methodist Justice Lecture from 2021, from former prime minister Gordon Brown:
