Pope Benedict XVI has attacked the "unbridled pursuit of wealth and short term profit" as the root cause of poverty and the global food crisis at the expense of "the common good".

Job losses and house repossessions brought on by the financial crisis are an opportunity for people to think about where their treasure truly lies, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said in his New Year’s message.

The current global financial crisis is not a counsel of despair, says Patrick Hynes. It is an opportunity to review our priorities and invest practically for change through agencies like Oikocredit.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development has issued a strong statement on the economic crisis, urging the Bush administration and Congress to focus on finance as a moral issue.

The main British party conferences were about to sidestep the economy, but the latest bank crunch has made the topic unavoidable, says Simon Barrow. But do politicians or the churches have anything meaningful to say?

Everyone is talking about the 'credit crunch'. Patrick Hynes, from Oikocredit, reflects on how access to fair finance continues to be a problem for people who are poor, and proposes a simple solution.

It's too easy too blame the vulnerable for the failings of public services and the economy, says Savi Hensman. We need a new culture, and both faith groups and secular ones like trades unions can contribute.

On the southern slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, a small bank owned by 330,000 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania's Northern District is improving the lives of poor people, while still managing to make a profit.