Annual review 2021-22
Annual report and accounts
Read our annual review and financial statements for the financial year 2021-22.
Catholic Social Teaching and human dignity
Watch a talk given by theologian Anna Rowlands at the 2022 AGM of our North East group
This talk was recorded on 20 October 2022.
Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power
SPARK newsletter autumn 2022
Click on the right to download the autumn 2022 issue of SPARK, our newsletter for supporters of Church Action on Poverty.
Politics, self and drama in our responses to scripture
Chris Hughes, a Catholic priest and member of Church Action on Poverty North East, explores how the parable of the Good Samaritan can suggest different ways for the church to respond to poverty.
Below is an example of how scripture can be looked at in different ways. These three perspectives have come from different reflections, mainly from Pope Francis and Anna Rowlands exploring the same piece of scripture, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
I want to offer what I call three lenses for exploring the famous passage. My hope is that this will offer a different way of looking at well known scriptures. Ultimately, what matters is not the ‘lens’ that is used but the insights that flow from it.
It will be interesting if others think that these lenses can be used on different scriptures and to know what insights can be gleaned. Of course you may use other ‘lenses’ to look at this or other passages.
Lens 1: the response of ‘political love’ to this story
In chapter 5 of his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis makes a distinction between ‘Elicited Love’ – when we are moved by compassion to respond to the immediate needs in front of us – and ‘Commanded Love’ – when we look at the systemic causes, the structural injustices, the possible response from institutions to change the root causes of the injustices caused by people.
Using the framework from community organising of having conversations with people (one-to-ones), imagine having conversations with all the characters in this story – the victim, the robbers, the Samaritan, the innkeeper, the indifferent clergy. What would be their concerns? What would be the structural causes of the issues experienced? Who would have the power to bring about change, and what would that change be?
Lens 2: identifying yourself in the story
In chapter 2 of Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis, inspired by his Ignatian formation of using your imagination with scripture, invites us to identify with which character we can most relate to. Francis senses that at different times in our lives we can be different characters. Is that your experience? To whom do you relate most at this present time? Are you able to identify with other characters at other times of your life? Who else can we identify in the characters in this story?
Lens 3: drama of salvation
In her theological reflection at the end of her book Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times, Anna Rowlands explores how theologians have interpreted the story. One way of seeing this story is playing out the drama of salvation: creation – fall – redemption in Christ – hope of fulfilled glory.
Through this lens, the victim, the violence and the indifference are all manifestations of our fallen world. The Samaritan is the Christ event who shows God does not pass by, but is moved with compassion to respond the needs of a broken humanity. This Christ figure rescues a dying humanity through compassion, showing that violence and indifference will not have the final say. This is our model of the Church’s ministry and mission. This is the source of our hope that we wait to be fulfilled. How does this impact on us and our prophetic and social action?
What insights and relevance arise when we use any of these lenses in the light the cost of living crisis?
Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power
‘To restore one’s soul’
Watch a video of one of the powerful poems featured in our new anthology.
‘To restore one’s soul’ by Amanda Button is featured in Dignity, Agency, Power – the anthology of poems, prayers, reflections and stories published by Wild Goose PUblications to mark Church Action on Poverty’s 40th anniversary in 2022.
Amanda Button works with our partners ATD Fourth World. We’re very grateful to Amanda and ATD for allowing us to reproduce the poem in the book, and for producing the video above.
Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power
Making the Economy work for Everyone
The report from a 2021 project of Church Action on Poverty North East
‘Making the Economy work for Everyone’ was the topic of an event at St Vincent’s SVP Centre in Newcastle on 25 September 2021. 30 representatives of communities from across the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) area gathered with six members of the Authority’s Inclusive Economy Board and their officers to explore the barriers and pathways to participating in and benefiting from the economy. They were joined by another 30+ people from the churches, voluntary sector and communities with an interest in making the economy work for our most disadvantaged communities.
The primary aim of the event was to ensure that key people in the Inclusive Economy Board hear and take on board the voices and experience of the people they aim to include, as they develop their policies and programmes.
This was an initiative of Church Action on Poverty North East. They were taking the opportunity of Bishop Christine Hardman, of the Church of England Diocese of Newcastle, chairing the NTCA Inclusive Economy Board, to create a space where the voices of some of the people furthest from benefiting from the economy could make their voices heard. Those representing the communities on the day stood for many more who had been involved in different ways over the course of a year, which had been dominated
by Covid, and they represented the experiences of many people in their communities.
SPARK newsletter winter 2021–22
Click on the right to download the winter 2021–22 issue of SPARK, our newsletter for supporters of Church Action on Poverty.
Annual review 2020–21
Staying Connected
Read our annual review and financial statements for the financial year 2020–21.
2021 conference: watch the recordings
On 20 November, people from around the UK gathered on Zoom to discuss how we can build a more powerful movement to reclaim dignity, agency and power. Watch the recordings from the day here.
The opening session: our Director Niall Cooper introduces our new strategy for building a movement that can reclaim dignity, agency and power. With opening worship led by Urzula Glienecke.
Participants discuss ways of building a movement in their own contexts.
Participants hear about our work to help churches prioritise people on the margins, and discuss how they could apply the ideas in their own churches.
Participants hear how we support people to set up Self-Reliant Groups – and get a taster of the new cookbook created by SRG members.
Participants discuss how our churches can learn from liberation theology’s approach to Bible studies led by people on the margins of society. Thanks to Revd Chris Howson for facilitating this workshop.
Participants gather again to reflect on what they’ve shared, and to attend our 2021 Annual General Meeting. Includes closing worship led by Urzula Glienecke.
