Leading Christian relief and development agencies are uniting to urge the British Government to make the eradication of poverty a priority in 2005, through trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid.

Tearfund, CAFOD, Christian Aid and World Vision have come together with a wider coalition of more than 100 aid agencies, campaign groups, churches and trade unions known as Make Poverty History to call on the Government to take the lead in tackling poverty in 2005. "Christians have a duty to defend the helpless and to cry out against injustice," says World Vision's Director of Advocacy, Communications and Education, Rudo Kwaramba. "Around 1.2 billion people live on less than 60 pence a day and every day 30,000 people die because of poverty. This is totally unacceptable and it's time that we stood united to call for change." In a year in which the UK Government will host the gathering of G8 leaders in July and in the same month assume presidency of the EU member states, the Make Poverty History coalition sees 2005 as a unique opportunity for the UK to influence industrialised countries.

The Christian voice will be strongly heard across the country in a series of high-profile events involving church representatives from up and down the country to be announced early in the New Year. "The churches have been the backbone of very major campaign against mass poverty over the last eight years or so," said Martin Drewry, Head of Campaigns at Christian Aid. "Without a doubt Jubilee 2000 could not have been so influential without the well-organised passion and commitment of so many churchgoers. But we still need more churchgoers - there is still more to do."

Andy Atkins, Tearfund's Advocacy Director, said: "Surely bringing God's will on earth as it is in heaven has to involve ending the indignity and injustice of global poverty. 2005 is a year of unprecedented opportunity - the opportunity for Christians to take this message from their homes and churches to the corridors of power and for those in the corridors of power to listen and act