Church Action on Poverty (CAP) has launched a "challenging" new programme to inspire church congregations to greater engagement with poverty and social injustice issues in Britain.

CAP's Just Church programme calls on Christians to "respond in prayer, understanding and action to the gospel imperative to love our neighbour".

With the gap between the richest and poorest at its widest for years, Just Church aims to be a "prophetic, provocative and urgent" initiative, CAP said, as it reminded Christians of the pressing needs of the almost four million children still living in poverty in Britain and the 5,000 elderly who die of cold each winter.

CAP co-ordinator Niall Cooper said: "Just Church does more than ask for sympathy; it challenges us to respond to the injustice which damages the lives of our neighbours. This is action rooted in spirituality."

Churches can engage with the issue of poverty over a series of twelve modules, looking at Just Jesus, Just Children, Just Worship and Just Action.

The series has been deliberately put together by Christians from across the church traditions so that congregations from every denomination can "engage with our calling to share the love of God and to participate in our Lord's commitment to bring good news to those suffering the effects of poverty", said Cooper.

"And this is good news for the churches too," he added. "In tackling injustice and poverty our own faith and spirituality is deepened and our unity with our fellow Christians grows."

CAP has recommended the use of Just Church during Lent in particular.

"Lent is a particularly good time to explore what Jesus is calling us to do today," said Cooper.

The modules include an action plan and, at the end of the course, the whole congregation is invited to enter into a "Just Church covenant" as an expression of its ongoing gospel commitment to serve and reach out to those in poverty.

Just Church has been sponsored and supported by a wide range of church bodies, including: the Church Urban Fund, the Baptist Union, the Shaftesbury Society, the Methodist Church, Hope 2008, Stewardship, the Iona Community, livesimply, Housing Justice, the United Reformed Church, the National Justice and Peace Network, and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

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