Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches are being encouraged to make poverty and simple living a focus during Poverty and Homelessness Action Week.

Leaders of the three denominations are recommending churches use resources produced for the campaign in their worship services.

Paul Morrison, policy adviser for the Methodist Church in Britain, said the initiative was even more important this year coming ahead of a general election.

“Poverty is not just the problem of some people having too little. It’s also a problem of some people having too much,” he said.

“From the very start, Methodism has been about sharing the gospel, and sharing was not just about telling people stories, it was about having compassion for who they are and the situation that each person finds themselves in.”

Frank Kantor, Secretary for Church and Society at the United Reformed Church, urged people to use the week as an opportunity to engage in the debate on incomes and inequality in the UK, one of the key issues in the run-up election.

Poverty and Homelessness Action Week is organised each year by Church Action on Poverty, Housing Justice and Scottish Churches Housing Action. They are encouraging people to share hospitality, food, transport and even their homes as part of the week, which this year takes place under the theme “Enough for all”.

The Rev Dr Rosemary Kidd, Faith and Unity Coordinator of the Baptist Union of Great Britain said: “It is quite clear that some people are paid too much but we have no mechanism by which we measure what is too much. There is enough for everyone, it’s just that wealth is poorly distributed.”

Resources include the 12 Baskets booklet, which gives churches and individuals practical ideas about how they can weather the recession and help others to do the same by living more simply and sharing what they have.

The booklet is inspired by the feeding of the 5,000 recorded in the New Testament, when there was enough bread for everyone to eat and fill 12 baskets with leftovers.

Alison Gelder, Chief Executive of Housing Justice, said: “There is so much more that people can do to tackle poverty and homelessness than raising money through sponsored sleep-outs, welcome as the funds are, and because it runs for a week you don’t need to be a church or even a Christian to take part. It’s only by communities of all kinds pulling together that we can change things for the better.”

Scottish Churches Housing Action Chief Executive, Alastair Cameron, added: “The gap between rich and poor is growing. But everyone can help to close it by operating outside the cash economy – through the basics of helping each other, sharing our insights and our skills, and showing that there are other ways of living our life.”

Poverty and Homelessness Action Week begins on January 30. To download resources go to: www.actionweek.org.uk/html/home.html