Where are the margins?

Reflection by Stef Benstead

What groups of people are on the margins? [people who lack the resources to change their situation]

• People with disabilities (currently difficult to access care)
• Travellers
• Migrants
• People suffering domestic abuse
• Children experiencing abuse
• People in care centres (cut off from society)
• People in food poverty
• LGBT+
• Homeless (new homeless in London – hospitality workers)
• Single parents
• People who are isolated/alone
• People with no access to technology
• Trans people
• People who have had difficult experiences of church
• People who are ‘othered’ – people who are talked about, not to.
• Black and minority ethnic people (disproportionately affected by the virus)
• Women
• Digital exclusion
• Addicts
• Prisoners/ex-offenders
• Destitute asylum seekers
• Sex workers (especially in current crisis)
• Individuals and families on zero-hours contracts, on the breadline

What causes marginalisation?

• Social and economic systems exclude people, e.g. education. … the structures of our society create margins.
• We need to aware that people may be labelled as marginalised and don’t want to be labelled as such.
• The church has gone online but disabled communities have been ‘doing and being’ church online for years, having been excluded from ‘mainstream’ church.
• How does the church marginalise? Is the church at the centre?
• We can learn from the methods of the Poverty Truth Commission. Church leaders can learn from a PTC – hear the experiences of people in poverty.
• Maybe the church needs a (Poverty) Truth Commission – the meeting of leaders and church members to share experiences and talk honestly about church. An opportunity for people to be heard.
• The church is not marginalised. …. The priest is ‘in charge’.
• For some the economic gap has drastically narrowed. People have suddenly found themselves in difficult situations.
• Some people are unwilling to engage with technology and so are cut off from online activity and community.
• Some people have to comply with systems to get what they need (e.g. PIP), others (richer and powerful) do not have to comply.
• Jesus crossed borders, challenged what was socially acceptable. 

How could you move to live, work, be alongside people on the margins?

• ‘We need to go to people on the margins, not wait for them to come to us.’
• We need to adopt relational approaches, befriend people where they are (not expect them to come to church).
• Meet in informal settings, e.g. pubs and cafes.
• Meet online, where many marginalised communities already gather.
• Listen to people who are angry and hurt.
• Admitting our mistakes when we get it wrong (as a church).
• Connecting with LGBT+.
• Bring people together for a shared meal (e.g. people from low-income and more affluent communities).
• Some (Anglican) churches are struggling with ‘resources churches’ taking over in their local area, lots of funding allocated to resource churches.
• Work with local people who have good local knowledge and skills (e.g. Sikh shopkeeper who knows the neighbourhood very well, helping with food provision).
• Some church leaders/hierarchy are currently advising clergy not to deliver food, etc. other people in the community are just getting on with it.