Christian charities are being urged to set aside internal competition and rivalries in pursuit of fighting global poverty.
End Poverty 2030 aims to unite different charities and projects around the global sustainable development goals, established by the United Nations in 2016.
Launching the 'God's Globals Goals?' project in the House of Lords on Wednesday, Rev Ian Hamlin, a Baptist minister near Cheltenham, said tackling poverty was among the only theological topics that can unite different Christian traditions.
'It is inevitable in any organisation that they seek to promote their own organisation and be what they are called to be and that is fine,' he told Christian Today.
'We are trying to cut across that.
'We've come across some churches who say "we are a Christian Aid church. We do all our poverty work through Christian Aid. Others say we are a Tearfund church" and that is on top of the inter-denominational links. That is fine but we were conscious of trying to build as many across those traditional networks as well as utilise them to their fullest,' he said.
'If that [competition] exists I'm sure people themselves wouldn't want it to exist. It is a unity project.'
The 'God's Global Goals?' project is attempting to spark a new energy around the SDGs, noting they 'seem to have slipped beneath the radar for many, with little public awareness or engagement within the Christian faith'.
Hamlin told Christian Today: 'We want to be a broad church in the very literal sense. This is something almost uniquely can theologically unite the Christian church and does in terms of working towards justice. That is a real opportunity for the church to engage together.'
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a follow up to the 8 millennial development goals.
