[Christian Answers to the Challenges and Problems of Poverty]

Abstract

. . . it neglects the important fact that the majority of the world's Anglicans live in poverty. Indeed, "if there is such a person as an 'average Anglican' today, she would be 22 years old, live in sub-Saharan Africa, and must walk several kilometres daily to fetch water for her three or four children." Many others with whom I share a common tradition and a common faith endure some of the worst economic conditions imaginable. Even in the United States, many Episcopal parishes persist in depressed urban areas which have been deserted by other mainline Protestants, and continue important social work among their poorest neighbors though they often fail (or fail to attempt) to make them parishioners. These facts compelled me to search within the Anglican theological tradition for a Christian answer to the challenges and problems of poverty. When and where do Anglicans begin to confront these problems, and how do historical expressions of Anglican social thought interact with the challenges we face today? [From Introductory Remarks]