Faith in the City is one of the most substantial documents on welfare provision and Urban Mission and Ministry in England, to have been published in the post-war period. Issued by the Church of England in the autumn of 1985, it was highly critical of the negative effects its authors believed the economic and social policies being pursued by Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government were having on the poorest members of British society. Robert Runcie (Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991) had instituted the Commission on Urban Priority Areas in 1983, to undertake the review that resulted in its publication. This was partly out of a concern he had that the government’s economic and social policies, may have contributed to bringing about the inner-city riots that had broken out in some of Britain’s poorest areas in 1981/82. Unemployment, in part the consequence of increased deindustrialisation that occurred under the Thatcher government, had reached a level not seen since the interwar depression. In 1982 this was 3 million people unemployed. This unemployment put a strain on the Welfare State and caused significant financial hardship for those who had lost their jobs. Runcie was keen to know how the Church of England could best contribute to meeting some of the challenges that the country now faced, as well as how to advise appropriate bodies on the most appropriate ways of tackling them. Accordingly, the Commission’s core terms of reference were:
‘To examine the strengths, insights, problems and needs of the Church’s life and mission in Urban Priority Areas and, as a result, to reflect on the challenge which God may be making to Church and Nation: and to make recommendations to appropriate bodies.’ (Faith in the City, 1985)
The report that followed made a series of recommendations to the government and the Church of England about how they might improve matters. While it had only a limited impact on changing the direction of government policy, it did result in a new emphasis being placed within the Church of England on the importance of Urban Mission and Ministry. Faith in the City was a report that resonated with many congregants in the Church of England, and is still regarded as being a landmark publication in post-war Church/State relations. In 2025, we celebrate the fortieth anniversary of its publication.
There are a number of conferences taking place during 2025, up and down the UK. The Urban Theology Union are partnering with the William Temple Foundation and other faith based organisations in this initiative. Gratitude is extended to Professor Chris Baker and research fellow Greg Smith for their work on this. Our partnership will be most clearly expressed through a gathering in Sheffield on the 12th July 2025 that we are hosting at Victoria Hall. This gathering will explore themes from Faith in the City in the North. There is also a book coming out in July 2025, published by Sacristy Press, called Celebrating 40 years of Faith in the City, edited by Terry Drummond and Joseph Forde. It has chapters by several experts in the field of Urban Theology, including one from the Revd Dr Alan Billings, who was a member of the Commission that produced Faith in the City.
The Church of England is currently grappling with complex issues such as safeguarding, inclusivity and managing the implications stemming from the reduced levels of religious observance and affiliation that is has been witnessing since the early 1960s. At such a time, it is surely important for Christians of whatever denomination, to remember and reflect on the positive role that it played in the 1980s when, in Faith in the City, it spoke truth to power. It did that by challenging the government of the day to rethink its approach in policy areas it believed were adversely affecting urban communities in cities and towns up and down the country. This anniversary year should, therefore, be a time to celebrate all that is good about Urban Mission and Ministry in the Church of England and in other churches. It is also a time when we can reflect on any lessons we can take from Faith in the City, and the impact that it had on shaping our understating of Urban Mission and Ministry.
Dr Joseph Forde is Honorary Research Fellow in Historical Theology at the Urban Theology Union, Sheffield, UK. Joe is also Chair of Sheffield’s Church Action on Poverty Group. He researches and writes about welfare and Christianity and is the author of: Before and Beyond the ‘Big Society’: John Milbank and the Church of England’s Approach to Welfare (James Clarke & Co, 2022).
Dr Joseph Forde writes for the blog this week. He is Chair of Sheffield’s Church Action on Poverty Group. He researches and writes on welfare and Christianity and is author of: ‘Before and Beyond the ‘Big Society’: John Milbank and the Church of England’s Approach to Welfare’ (James Clarke & Co, 2022).
How can Christians best contribute to the Let’s End Poverty campaign, launched on 14th October, 2023? This is already a diverse, growing movement of people united behind a vision for a UK where poverty can’t keep anyone down! More than 30 organisations have already thrown their weight behind Let’s End Poverty, which is rapidly developing into a major anti-poverty pressure group in the run-up to the next General Election. We considered the opportunities for growing this campaign as part of the ‘Building Dignity, Agency and Power to End Poverty’ conference, organised by Church Action on Poverty, and held in Manchester on November 8. During the conference, I was fortunate to participate in a stimulating discussion focusing on how we might harness the support of the private, business sector to achieve our vision of a UK free from poverty, by using overlapping values as a way of harnessing their support, and that is the theme of this article.
How can we end Poverty?
When it comes to campaigning on social justice issues, as well as addressing their causes, Christians in the UK have historically been good at contributing to, and harnessing the support of, the voluntary sector. They remain active across a wide range of charitable projects that are focused on improving the lives of the least well off. Christians have also been good at harnessing the resources of the state sector and contributed substantially to the founding of the post-war welfare state settlement via books such as Archbishop William Temple’s seminal ‘Christianity and Social Order’ (Temple, 1942). What is more, they have provided volunteers for state run welfare providers such as the NHS, and have campaigned successfully for additional resources to be made available for them.
There have also been some notable examples of how Christians have harnessed the resources of the private, business sector in support of their charitable activities. For example Cadburys, the chocolate maker, founded by a Quaker family, provided workers with good quality housing, in stark contrast to the way many industrial workers in other parts of the city were forced by their employers to live in poorly-built, back to back, slum houses. Moreover, a member of our discussion group told how the Cooperative Group in the UK has ― throughout its history― made a sizeable contribution to local charities each year, seeing this as a vital part of its purpose and wholly in line with its business ethos. Within our discussion group a consensus was building that Christians should focus more on securing private sector support for projects such as Let’s End Poverty.
Overlapping Values
Overlapping values promotes a win-win outcome, where private sector businesses can see if their commercial interests align with the goals of the Let’s End Poverty campaign. We feel confident about this due to the example of the Living Wage Campaign. This campaign,which is supported by Church Action on Poverty, seeks to secure a minimum living wage that reflects current costs of living realities for all employees. The campaign has been going for more than twenty years and provides accreditation to employers committed to paying a real living wage, based on living costs, which is higher than the government’s National Living Wage. Almost seven thousand employers are now accredited and, thanks to the campaign, £1.3 billion pounds has been put back in the pockets of the lowest-paid workers, over the years.
The Living Wage Campaign has always focused on the advantages to the employer of paying a living wage. These advantages include a more committed workforce, leading to better staff recruitment and retention and lower staff absences. Of course, there were benefits for their employees too: more purchasing power, often resulting in more stable domestic arrangements, and enhanced opportunities to engage in leisure activities. This is an example of how overlapping values can be used successfully to harness the resources of the business sector, in ways that can help to reduce poverty levels in the UK. The Let’s End Poverty campaign can learn from this.
This example also sits within a wider shift in business values in the UK. At the conference, I shared how financial expert and former Bank of England chief Mark Carney makes a powerful case for businesses to adopt this kind of approach in his most recent book, ‘Values: Building a Better World’. His argument is values-based and holistic, highlighting the need for businesses to be mindful of the context in which they operate, which affect poverty in the UK. Carney advocates a values-based, holistic, strategic, contextually focused approach to business strategy; one that will result in better business outcomes and a more sustainable and ethically justifiable contribution to the wider society in which businesses operate.
Moving forward
By taking an overlapping, values-based approach to harnessing the support and resources of the private, business sector for campaigns to reduce poverty, Christians can tap into levels of resource that would otherwise be lost to their cause. Our discussion group concluded that Christians should never fall into the trap of thinking that private businesses cannot embrace an agenda that advances social justice issues, such as ending poverty, because of their need to generate profits. That remains equally true when seeking to harness the support and resources of the private, business sector for campaigns to alleviate and finally bring an end to poverty in the UK. Rather, there was a consensus in our group that a key challenge moving forward, is to persuade the private business sector that it is in their interests to identify the overlapping values that they have with a campaign such as the Let’s End Poverty.
Joining the Lets End Poverty Campaign
Anyone interested in joining the Let’s End Poverty campaign, either as individuals or as an organisation that is committed to achieving that goal, should access the Let’s End Poverty website for further information at tis link, https://letsendpoverty.co.uk/
Notes
W. Temple, Christianity and Social Order (1942) (London, Shepheard-Walwyn, 1971)
2 M. Carney, Values: Building a Better World For All (London: William Collins Books, 2022)
