 |
Church & SocietyThis committee seeks to serve local churches, district councils and synods, ecumenical and appropriate secular bodies, in raising awareness, sharing information and encouraging reflection and action on matters of justice and peace, healing and reconciliation. It seeks to represent the concern of the church for such matters to government and others with power over the life of people in these islands, acting ecumenically wherever possible. It is responsible for Commitment for Life (including the 1% appeal) and will promote such other programmes as will help the above aims.
Committee Members Convener: Revd Martin Camroux Secretary: Dr Andrew Bradstock (until February 2005) Administrator: Ms Wendy Cooper Programme Director, Commitment for Life: Mrs Anne Martin Mr Geoffrey Duncan, Revd Owiny Laber, Mr Simon Loveitt, Revd Alan Paterson, Revd Tjarda Murray, Mrs Glenna Paynter, Miss Emma Pugh.
attending by invitation: Mr Graham Handscomb (Free Church Education Committee), Mr George Morton (CTBI Environmental Issues Network).
1 MakePovertyHistory 1.1 So 2005 has now arrived, the year we’ve been gearing up for as campaigners, the year we hope will see world leaders take the kind of action to tackle global poverty we’ve been pressing them to take for so long. To capitalise on the extraordinary opportunities that this year presents – including the report of the Commission for Africa, the UK hosting a G8 summit and assuming the presidency of the EU – agencies, faith movements, trades unions and others have come together under the banner MakePovertyHistory to ensure that the most effective mobilisation possible is mounted.
1.2 January saw the church launch of MakePovertyHistory in London, and with some 700 people attending churches certainly were able to say loudly that they wanted action this year. The United Reformed Church helped to organise that event, and among the church leaders taking part was the Moderator of General Assembly, Sheila Maxey. With some 600 women clergy and religious from all denominations, Sheila also took part in the ‘Vicar of Dibley’ march to Downing Street in January, and, with Roberta Rominger, was among the small delegation that went to lobby the Prime Minister at No 10 with Dawn French.
1.3 The Commitment for Life report outlines other ways in which the United Reformed Church is getting involved with MakePovertyHistory, but we have well and truly built upon the resolutions on the Millennium Development Goals and the 2005 mobilisation passed by the last two Assemblies, and thrown ourselves fully into this potentially world-changing initiative. Church and Society has been delighted to support the six-month appointment of Helen Warmington as the United Reformed Church’s Campaign Officer for MakePovertyHistory.
2 Currency Transaction Tax 2.1 One organisation which has been particularly looking forward to 2005 is the Tobin Tax Network to which the United Reformed Church and FURY are affiliated. With a focus this year on finding new money for development, the Network believes that the time for a currency transaction levy – a considerably modified version of the tax originally proposed by Professor James Tobin in the 1970s – has come. Accordingly it is mounting a specific project this year entitled ‘Winning the Argument in 2005’.
3 Ethics of the New Warfare 3.1 Progress continues to be made on this project which Church and Society was asked to pursue by Assembly 2003. With our colleagues in the Methodist Church we have brought together a team of people with specialist knowledge, experience and interest in the subject and they are now meeting to plan the project in greater detail and decide what form the ‘outcome’ will take.
4 Party conferences 4.1 In September the Moderator of General Assembly joined with her Baptist, Methodist, Quaker and Salvation Army colleagues to visit all three party conferences. The aim of these visits is to enable leaders of the free churches to meet parliamentarians for informal conversations, to share matters of common concern and discuss ways each can help and support the other. As well as pre-arranged meetings with senior parliamentarians, opportunities were taken to attend debates in the conference halls, hear speeches by party leaders, attend fringe meetings and prayer breakfasts and meet members of the Christian groupings associated with the parties. As in previous General Election years the United Reformed Church has worked with our ecumenical partners to assist churches in local constituencies to organise hustings meetings for candidates.
5 Assets for Life 5.1 The pack produced jointly with the Church Related Community Work programme and launched at Assembly 2004 is proving an invaluable resource for churches seeking to become more effectively involved in serving their local community.
6 JustShare 6.1 This coalition of churches and faith-based agencies which the United Reformed Church helped to create in 2001 continues to take the debate about globalisation and social justice to the City. JustShare’s programme includes public debates, boardroom discussions and ‘street-level’ events around May Day, which last year included a ‘sermon for the City’ preached from the steps of the Royal Exchange followed by an open forum. Another sermon is planned for 2005 and it is hoped that the event will become an annual fixture.
7 The United Reformed Church and the Free Church Education Committee 7.1 The Free Churches have a long history of involvement in public education. In most cases this has meant a concentration of effort in the areas of debate and dialogue about the content of education, the purposes of education and its role in society, rather than in running schools. There are now new opportunities to build on this experience and commitment. The Government is actively seeking the involvement of faith groups in many areas of public policy and is building on the successful collaborative work involved in producing the new non-statutory framework for Religious Education as a model for other forms of engagement in and beyond education.
7.2 The Free Church Education Committee (FCEC) aims to serve its member denominations and to work with others to ensure that Christians have a voice in education and that, in turn, the churches are fully informed about educational issues. The United Reformed Church has much to offer to the world of education and we believe that a closer working relationship between the United Reformed Church and the Free Church Education Committee would benefit both the churches and the world of education.
7.3 These are some of the areas in which the FCEC will be involved in the coming months, and in which the United Reformed Church could play an important part: 7.3.1 The debate on Collective Worship in schools. Currently many schools are not complying with the requirement for a daily act of collective worship and there is no real incentive for them to do so. It is likely that there will be a review of policy in this area, but only if the churches and other faith groups can demonstrate some degree of consensus. The United Reformed Church needs to be involved in this – collective worship in schools may be the only encounter many young people have with Christian worship, and many of our ministers are involved in leading acts of collective worship in their local schools.
7.3.2 SACREs – Standing Advisory Committees for Religious Education. The Free Churches have representatives on these committees within each Local Education Authority. Many of these representatives are United Reformed Church members. We need to support and encourage these people and to ensure that we are able to provide representatives with experience and enthusiasm. The FCEC will be looking at ways in which we can improve recruitment and support and would welcome an active United Reformed Church contribution to this.
7.3.3 Teaching as a vocation Historically Christians have been over-represented numerically in educational professions and we believe that that has had a positive effect on the values and ethos of our schools. There will be new initiatives to encourage Christians to consider teaching as a vocation and a way of living out their Christian faith in society. We will be encouraging the United Reformed Church to be an active partner in this enterprise.
7.3.4 New housing areas In areas where new communities are being built, the churches are already actively involved in discussing provision for worship. There have also been discussions about ecumenical schools. The United Reformed Church needs to be working with ecumenical partners in these new areas to consider how best to have a Christian presence in schools.
7.3.5 Education Sunday (12 February 2006) is an opportunity to celebrate education – to support our teachers and schools and to encourage our members to take seriously the issues that affect the education of young people in our society. The United Reformed Church has been a partner in this work and we would like to ensure that next year Education Sunday is celebrated across the Church. Unfortunately this year the material did not get as far as the United Reformed Church website.
7.3.6 Website The Free Church Education website (www.freechurcheducation.org.uk) will provide a source of information, news, support to all those involved or interested in education and the church’s role. It is being redeveloped and will appeal to a far wider audience – not just specialists. We would like to ensure that the site is widely known and used by anyone who believes that the churches have something to contribute to education.
7.4 These are just some examples of the work of the Free Church Education Committee. In the coming months the Church and Society Committee will be exploring ways in which the United Reformed Church can be more actively and consistently involved.
8 AIDS Working Group 8.1 The Group devoted much of its time during the autumn to planning and publicising an event, ‘God on Edge’, scheduled to take place in January. The aim of the day was to enable people to move from showing concern and compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS to grappling with the wider issues. Lionel Blue had agreed to be the keynote speaker, and workshops arranged to explore the issues in depth (sexuality and the church; living and dying with HIV/AIDS; expressing our feelings through art and music; creative writing). However, the disappointingly low number of bookings gave us no option but to cancel it.
8.2 Prior to World AIDS Day 2004, we co-branded and distributed to all churches a poster produced by the Methodist Mission Education office, ‘The Body of Christ has AIDS’. It quotes 1 Corinthians 12:26-27, ‘Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it …’. It has disturbed and challenged. That is what HIV/AIDS in our world is doing to all of us. We have to face up to the implications of those verses.
8.3 The Group plans to produce a booklet of worship resources for World AIDS Day 2005, and again, the United Reformed Church website will provide links to Church of Scotland and Christian Aid materials.
8.4 There remains much to be done. If anything, the recent disappointments have undoubtedly given the Group renewed incentive as it continues to reflect on the best way forward in the task of encouraging a greater awareness of the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS virus on individuals and communities both in the UK and globally.
9 Environmental Issues 9.1 The Environmental Policy for the United Reformed Church, welcomed and endorsed by the General Assembly 2004, will only be relevant if actions are taken by the church at all levels. In the Policy, local churches are encouraged to examine their environmental practices, using the resources of Eco-Congregation, and to work through Operation Noah to raise awareness of climate change. A network is being developed with the Methodist Church to assist churches and districts to respond to the challenges to the environment by sharing written resources and disseminating information about action taken by local churches.
9.2 Eco-Congregation in England is now managed by the Arthur Rank Centre, support is offered to churches in Wales, and the programme in Scotland provides a revised set of resources on its website. Operation Noah was launched on 9 October with a conference of 250 people and a service at Coventry Cathedral. It is now overseen by the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and is contributing to the Climate Movement, a coalition of agencies working together to mobilise action related to the G8 Summit in July.
9.3 As part of its overview of current environmental matters, the Environmental Issues Network discussed ways of ensuring environmental issues are recognised during the UK presidency of G8 and the European Union. In particular it sees the need to recognise the damaging effects of climate change on the prospects of the developing world.
10 United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship 10.1 At a well-attended Annual Conference at Carrs Lane in November, John Johansen-Berg gave an incisive keynote address on ‘Wall of Shame and Roll of Honour – a strategy for peacemaking in Israel/Palestine’. From the AGM Group Reports five priority actions were chosen:
10.2 The Convener represents the United Reformed Church on Churches Together in Britain and Ireland’s (CTBI) Working Group for the World Council of Churches Decade to Overcome Violence. The Group organised a conference at Swanwick in September 2004 on ‘Beyond Violence?’ to which a hundred people came and the United Reformed Church had the greatest number of participants. Churches have been asked to respond to the Working Group on:
10.3 A ‘WISE’ (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England) Project may be facilitated by CTBI on a truth recovery and healing process within and between the four nations on the historic resolution of the British Irish conflict. The Group has also worked on the CTBI Lent Course in 2006 planned around the theme of Overcoming Violence.
10.4 Members of the Peace Fellowship remembered Children Living in War Zones on 30 December following the Holy Innocents Day Service in St Martin-in-the Fields, London. We also joined in the Lobby of Parliament calling for sustained and increased British commitment towards the following UN-led processes: achieving the Millennium Development Goals; advancing nuclear non-proliferation; strengthening UN human rights machinery.
11 Criminal Justice 11.1 Along with its ongoing concern about prison conditions, support for the families of those in custody and the rehabilitation of offenders, the Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum (CCJF) continues to advocate alternatives to custody. A Home Office secondment on Restorative Justice has produced a five-week study pack on the subject in an easily photocopiable loose-leaf format. CCJF supported the launch on 9 December 2004 of the major report A Place of Redemption, A Christian Approach to Punishment and Prison, published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
11.2 CCJF networks with groups and charities in the field of rehabilitation and intervention to prevent offending. It encourages the developing work of Community Chaplaincy (work with offenders that begins while they are still in custody and continues to support them towards taking responsibility for their own lives when they are released)
11.3 In advance of the expected General Election, CCJF produced a Position Paper on crime prevention, the criminal justice system, resettlement and vulnerable groups, together with a list of possible questions for candidates. A Scottish version of the What can I Do? booklet on the many opportunities for volunteering within the criminal justice system has now been produced and work is proceeding on updating the original.
11.4 The title Director has now been accorded to Stuart Dew, formerly Criminal Justice Officer, in recognition of the wide remit he undertakes. He is supported by an energetic part-time Policy Officer, Lindsey Holley.
12 Andrew Bradstock
12.1 Internally the major event of the year was the departure of Andrew Bradstock to be Director of the Christian Socialist Movement. This is a real loss to the Church. Andrew brought to his time as Church and Society Secretary a double gift. Firstly as an academic and as a radical Christian Andrew had a deep rooting in the history and theology of the English Revolution. This ironically meant that although he himself was not a member of the United Reformed Church he had a deeper appreciation of the origins and nature of the Reformed tradition than most members of the Church. Secondly he brought a great knowledge of contemporary politics and a tremendous ability to network politically - most dramatically evidenced in his arranging the visit of Claire Short to the 2003 Assembly. Although himself critical of aspects of government policy his links with the Labour Movement facilitated contacts which enabled the United Reformed Church to develop its commitment to causes such as MakePovertyHistory and the Jubilee Debt Campaign. A particularly innovative initiative came out of his belief that within the globalization process, governments, corporations, non-governmental organisations and international finance institutions so seldom appear to come together to explore common ground. His success in facilitating a two-day seminar at High Leigh in November 2002 around the issue of water sector reform in Ghana which included representatives of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, the World Bank, the Department for International Development, a private company interested in the water franchise in Ghana and leading non-governmental organizations from Ghana, offered a model which has wider applicability. We shall greatly miss Andrew in Church and Society and in the Church generally.
Resolution 20
|