CHURCHES WILL PLAY VITAL ROLE IN BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER POST-COVID-19
Churches in the UK have a unique opportunity and rich resources to bring local communities together in a post-Covid-19 world where loneliness and inequality look set to rise, claims the Free Churches’ report on The Church and Social Cohesion.
The report calls on every church in the UK to assess whether it is using its resources to the best of its ability to improve social cohesion at the very grassroots level. It identifies the following assets that local churches may have, including the vision to serve, which is based on a local knowledge of and commitment to their neighbourhoods:
Buildings - to hold community events (which can foster everything from church events to mother and toddler groups or foodbanks).
Networks - that bring people together from different backgrounds and can be used to send information quickly into communities in times of need.
Leadership – not just faith leadership at a formal level but also encouraging and nurturing young Christians to lead, something which should be further developed.
Convening power – bringing people together offering conversational space.
Volunteering – providing and co-ordinating volunteers and events.
Vision - the desire to shape and transform communities, which is intrinsic to the core values of Christianity.
The Church, with its strong vision and desire to “love your neighbour as yourself”, has an important role to play in helping to bring communities together.
“Most Christians wouldn’t naturally think of the work they are doing in communities as “social cohesion” work, because that is the language of policy makers. However, in their quiet, everyday ministries of neighbour-love, they are building the links we rely on to call ourselves ‘a community’, all the time. We hope this research helps both policymakers and churches themselves to recognise this.”
The challenge for each local church is to look at what you’re already doing to encourage and support social cohesion in the places God calls you to serve.
What needs strengthening and where can you do more?
(Article adapted from press release by Theos Think Tank on 26th November. The areas visited for the research were: Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Cornwall, Croydon, Derby, East Lindsey, Haringey, Middlesbrough, Newham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Solihull, and Thanet.)