Lent begins this Sunday and churches across the UK are gearing up for the launch of a programme of activities that will challenge and inspire them to reflect God's concern for the poor and disadvantaged more fully.

Church Action on Poverty's (CAP) new Just Church programme, available free online, has been put together to help congregations explore how they can commit to justice in every aspect of their lives and work for a fairer world within their wider communities.

Just Church is a specially tailored course for use during Lent and includes a wide range of other modules, supplementary materials and multimedia presentations.

More than 50 churches have already ordered printed courses, and hundreds more are using the website where modules can be downloaded.

Churches who use the programme will become part of a network of Just Churches, sharing ideas and receiving support from one another, as well as further resources from CAP's central office.

Just Church has been sponsored and supported by a wide range of organisations from all traditions and denominations, including the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Shaftesbury Society, Church Urban Fund, Hope 2008 and the Methodist Church.

Dr Anthony G Reddie, Research Fellow in Black Theological Studies, the Methodist Church & the Queen's Foundation, Birmingham, said, "The scandal of structural and systemic poverty in Britain is one that should not be permitted to go hidden or unnoticed any longer.

"Just Church provides an excellent resource for challenging all of us to remember the biblical mandate to provide justice for the poor and the marginalised."

Church Action on Poverty National Co-ordinator, Niall Cooper, added: "Local churches in the UK are becoming increasingly aware of the injustice and poverty that exists all around them, and they want to do something about it.

"This week is Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, and churches have been involved in planning over 100 events around the country which give a voice to the poor and the disadvantaged.

"We hope many of them will use our Just Church materials - whether in Lent or at another time in the year - to live out that concern and become real agents of change in the world."

The entire Just Church programme is available for free download at www.justchurch.info.