OUR ten core ‘benchmarks’ for moving towards a better society, and working/voting for a genuinely common good, were first enunciated in 2015.
They were consciously designed to be sharable by people of goodwill from different faith traditions, and among those of non-religious convictions, too.
• A commitment to favouring the poorest and most marginalised in all decision-making
• Actively redressing and reversing social and economic injustices and inequalities
• Welcoming the stranger and valuing displaced and marginalised people
• Seeing people, their dignity and rights, as the solution not the problem
• Moving from punitive ‘welfare’ to a socially secure society where all fare well
• Promoting and prioritising community and neighbourhood empowerment
• Food, education, health, housing, public transport, work, creativity and a sustainable citizen’s income for all
• Care for the planet and wellbeing as the non-negotiable basis for human and economic development
• Investing in nonviolent alternatives to war and force as the basis for security
• Transparency, honesty, representation, participation and accountability in public institutions
Underpinning these, in the political realm, is a commitment to subsidiarity, popular sovereignty, proportional representation, the ending of monarchy, and participatory/deliberative democracy as ethical imperatives.
In the economic realm, our commitment is towards creating socialised, cooperative, green, human-scale and equalising economies; an end to speculative finance and tax havens; the break-up of monopolies; substantial wealth redistribution; popular control and management of businesses; democratically accountable public/community/cooperative ownership of key resources and utilities (like water and energy); ending growth and capital accumulation as central economic drivers; and replacing GDP and similar measurements with ones based on environmental impact and sustainability, equalities of outcome, and human wellbeing.
Ekklesia’s overall approach is rooted in virtue ethics. This involves a focus on exploring what ‘the good’ means in tangible rather than abstract terms; a refusal to separate means and ends; attention to how we need to be re-shaped as people and communities to help realise a good society (character formation); and nurturing the particular habits and practices required to direct interpersonal and political life towards love as well as justice: things like nonviolence, forgiveness, sharing, creativity, solidarity, resistance, restoring and repairing.
It should go without saying that corporate, extractivist, rentier and laissez-faire capitalism, institutional racism, classism, sexism, ableism and all forms of supremacism, hatred, phobia or discrimination are inimical to our principles and values.
We are considering the creation of a new Values statement in the future. (The previous one, from 2007, focussing on our founding theological and ethical concerns, can be viewed here. Our previous FAQs can be viewed here.)