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Category: News

Church on the fringe?

Hannah Brock is facilitating and supporting a new 'community of praxis' in Sheffield for Church Action on Poverty. She shares some thoughts from their first day of reflection in Sheffield, about what it means to be Church on the Margins.

14 people met at the wonderful Creswick Greave Methodist Church – home of the Parson Cross Initiative – on 11 May for a reflection day, and to get to know one another.

We looked at different images of Jesus that appeal to us, and did a ‘living Bible study’ – thinking ourselves into roles in the story of Jesus healing a man with leprosy – which led is to think about who is at the margins of our society today. We had time to reflect on how people marginalised by society feel in our own church communities and discussed how we could work together in future.

It was a rich day, with opportunities to hear about how the Spirit is at work in different places in our society. Something that really stayed with me was the idea of ‘church on the fringe’: ‘church on the margins’ doesn’t mean ‘lesser’ church – far from it. Like ‘fringe’ festivals, it can mean excitement, creativity and prophecy that challenges the status quo!

News

Sheffield Church Action on Poverty Update, May 2021

Read the latest newsletter from our local group in Sheffield
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David Goodbourn Lecture 2021 – register now

The lecture ‘Untangling the legacies of slavery: Deconstructing Mission Christianity for our contemporary Kerygma.’ will be given by Anthony Reddie, Director of the Oxford Centre …
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Finding a focus: churches tackling poverty together

A local Churches Together group in North Wales found creative ways to be part of the movement to loosen the grip of poverty. We asked Revd Kathryn Price to share some of their experiences.

Well, it was my turn to occupy the Chair of Mold Cytun (Churches Together) last year.  Just for a year.  It seemed to me that some new focus was needed that might take us out of our little boxes.

Part of my remit as a minister is responsibility for Parkfields Community Centre.  Parkfields used to be more active as an ecumenical centre for social action.  There was a Peace and Justice group and every year a series of lunches with speakers on a range of subjects.  Some of this had got lost when the Centre lost both leadership and income for a while, so I thought it was time to reboot.

I chose Church Action on Poverty because it offers a range of different approaches – worship, campaigning and real engagement with people on the edges.  So how did we do?  What did we do?

A very small group attended a meeting to think about this and came up with a rough plan for the year.  We began with a lunch at the beginning of Advent, when diners were invited to bring stocking-fillers, which would be given to both the food bank and SHARE (a local charity that helps homeless people and refugees).  It was moderately successful – the usual faces, but some new ones and half a dozen carrier bags of goodies to pass on, as well as superb soup! 

The collection at the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity united service was donated to Church Action on Poverty, with plenty of information to keep up the momentum.  My Mold church used the special Sunday material, including a couple of the online videos, and promoted our ecumenical Lent group that used Dangerous Stories, Church Action on Poverty’s take on some of the parables, as its material.  The Easter coffee morning proceeds also went to Church Action on Poverty and my year as Chair ended with Niall Cooper coming to speak to the AGM. 

It doesn’t sound much, but the people who did get involved are also involved in so much else – in their own churches and also in the community.  Some did find it helpful for us to have a particular focus when we came together.

What happens next? Well, we are hoping to get a new faith support worker at the Community Centre and part of their remit will be to engage with the issues that Church Action on Poverty focuses on and they will be encouraged to work with Church Action on Poverty, using their resources as well as their information and encouragement to make a real difference to our community.  I hope that this person will be a champion for Church Action on Poverty in Mold.  That’s what it needs, when the rest of us are pulled in so many other directions. 

Will that work?  Ask me next year!

Revd Kathryn Price is a United Reformed Church minister, working in North East Wales.

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100 Days – a poem from ‘Same Boat?’

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For richer, for poorer

Pengilley painting
Revd Dr David Primrose (Director of Transforming Communities in the Diocese of Lichfield and a trustee of Church Action on Poverty) reflects on a fruitful and courageous partnership.

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The data: What’s happened to crisis support where you live?

Local crisis funds are a vital lifeline for people who find themselves suddenly swept into difficulty. Yet across the country, they have been neglected and removed.
In 2018, our Compassion In Crisis report uncovered the full extent of cuts across England. We’re now making the full data set available, so you can see the situation where you live.
Using this map, you can find the area where you live and see the local data:

Local Welfare Assistance Schemes are there to provide short-term help where it is needed, so people can ride out a storm and keep their head above water. In 2017-18, a quarter of a million people in England sought help this way, but most funds have become threadbare and 28 councils have closed theirs completely. In the past five years, funding has reduced by 72.5% on average.

>> Download the Compassion in Crisis report here

Compassion-in-Crisis
Our compassionate society is full of systems and supports that we hope not to need, but which must be ready just in case. Take the emergency teams at our hospitals, for instance, or the lifebelts we see alongside rivers all over the country.
For many years, such crisis support has been a vital part of our welfare system too, and its removal leaves thousands adrift in times of trouble. It’s just not right.
Local Welfare is a very small proportion of the overall public budget, but a vital emergency resource that any one of us could find ourselves needing without warning. It is an emergency lifebelt that must be retained.

We recommend:

  • Government should make it a statutory duty for top-tier local authorities in England to run a LWAS that can provide cash grants, loans and in-kind support for people, as appropriate, in times of need.
  • As part of the forthcoming spending review, ring-fenced funding should be provided for Local Welfare Assistance Schemes across England
  • The UK Government should work with the Local Government Association, local councils and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to identify and replicate best practice across the UK.