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Tuesday 20 January 2015

Response from UPA Parishes to Bishop of Blackburn's paper 'Healthy Churches: Transforming Communities'.

 
Posted by Rev Anne Morris Vicar St Oswald, Knuzden

 

2015 will mark the 30th Anniversary of the Faith in the City report which led to the foundation of the Church Urban Fund. I have clear memories of the astonishing vision behind the report which saw all C of E churches raising money for work in deprived urban areas. The Diocese of Blackburn had its own working group, chaired by Canon Eddie Burns, which drew attention to the many deprived areas in the Diocese. The Church of England seemed to have taken poverty to heart.

 

Thirty years on it seems as if much of this vision has disappeared and that ministry in poor urban areas is a lonely and uphill struggle. Raising funds to pay the parish share and for the maintenance of buildings is very difficult in parishes where money is in short supply. Church members can and do give generously week by week, and committees work hard to run fundraising events, but if the people have little money then the sum total will also be a small amount.

 

Churches in economically deprived areas also face extra challenges in ministering to their locality. These churches can be short of skilled helpers and pastoral events such as baptisms, weddings and funerals can present all sorts of difficulties and challenges not faced elsewhere. Across the diocese UPA parishes are running groups and managing projects which are, literally, a life line to people in their communities. These are often run on a shoestring with a handful of skilled volunteers who are leaned upon heavily and who can become exhausted. In a situation such as this it is disheartening to look at 'flourishing' churches in wealthier areas who seem to have more resources to draw on in terms of both money and people. It is easy for wealthier parishes to become 'consumers' of net resources, leaving poorer parishes struggling with less.

 

If we pause to look at the life of Jesus Christ, his teaching and example, it is quite clear where energy and resources should be directed. To be true to the Gospel we, in Blackburn Diocese, must do the same: resources must be directed at places of poverty. For places of deprivation, therefore, the life and example of Jesus Christ are as important as his death and ressurection; indeed, in the service of the poor and marginalised, Christ's death and resurrection serve as a template for mission and ministry, allowing new life to emerge in, often desperate circumstances. This is a gospel for the world which is outward looking, seeking people on the fringes of society who may never become churchgoers but who may, non the less, be touched by the love of Christ.

 

My feeling, serving in Shadsworth, is that, in the poorest places, poverty is worse than I've ever seen it . Our society in general may be emerging from the recession, but the very poorest are living on less money and less social support. The 'cuts' mean that the 'safety net' has gone. Churches have stepped in with food-banks, but there is much more to be done to allow the poorest on our society to regain dignity and independence. Theologian Canon John Atherton developed the idea of the 'central determining reality' of local economies. This could refer to a dominating employer or industry (such as Mullards was in Blackburn 30 years ago), or to the hidden workforce of outworkers creating budget goods and paid as pieceworkers.

 

Today's central determining reality, for many parishes in the Blackburn Diocese is poverty. There are parishes where 49% of children, 50% of pensioners and 44% of working age people live in poverty. At the same time the Diocese also has parishes where only 2-3% of these groups live in poverty. Inequality, therefore, is a very striking feature of the Diocese – a second central determining reality. However the will to support ministry in the most deprived parishes appears to be fading, or to have disappeared completely. With vision and commitment the Diocese could, at least with its own finances and resources, address the inequality in parish support. This would begin to make a difference to places of poverty and enable a much more dynamic and effective ministry there. This would be a prophetic act, centred on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, and living out the Resurrection in the world.

 

The occurrence of poverty in the Blackburn Diocese is so significant that it should be the basis, the starting point, of any vision statement, on which all other matters are judged. If this doesn't happen then the ideas laid out on the 'Healthy Churches Vision Document' will simply not be possible in the most deprived parishes because of lack of financial and people resources. The gap between rich and poor parishes will widen and, eventually, there will be no effective ministry or mission in the places which need it most.

 

It must also be said that ministry and mission in the deprived parishes has to be 'slow ministry'. Very often 'the poor' are 'done to' rather than 'done with'. For change to be effective and lasting, ministry needs to be 'done with' those affected by poverty, not 'to'them.– it has to be there for the long haul, because it takes time to listen and understand, it takes time for trust to be earned, it takes time for cultural barriers to be understood and overcome,  to begin to change local economies and to allow hope to grow.  This needs time, patience, resources and a love whose source and inspiration is Jesus Christ. There is no 'quick fix.'

 

Anne Morris   4/12/14

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