William Temple Scholar Valerie Barron reports back from her recent event on theology and social enterprise in the northeast of England.
Two weeks ago, I held my first event as a William Temple Scholar. The seminar Reimagining Church in Action; Putting Social Enterprise into the Picture, was attended by ecumenical colleagues from a variety of church background across the region. Afterwards, I breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, social enterprise is something that colleagues, church leaders and project workers are also thinking about in the North East.
John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, kicked off the day by arguing that the ‘charity model’ of top-down, one-way, sacrificial giving is not reflected in the New Testament where the ‘reciprocity model’ of horizontal, two-way, communal giving and receiving dominates society. In the round table discussions that followed it was recognised that, ‘a system where charities are reliant on grant funding provided by philanthropists means that they are constantly chasing funding… persuading people to sponsor becomes a major part of the job’.
Kate Welch from Social Enterprise Acumen in Sunderland then set out how, for those passionate about social justice, a change of mindset was central to a different approach. This change begins by moving away from a sole reliance upon the charity model and towards income generation. In later discussions this was a concern for some as, ‘there is resistance in church circles to business models and business language’. Our challenge is how to frame the conversations in a way that is not a barrier to congregations, who often see a business model as unethical.
Chris Baker, Director of Research for the William Temple Foundation, challenged us to consider whether social enterprise critically utilises market logic for the achievement of social or environmental goals, rather than simply adding social objectives to current business practice. Finally, Ven. Peter Robinson, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne, talked about the theme of failure and the need for us to make ourselves vulnerable. He suggested that we must take risks, and that going forward we must see failure as part of how we do social enterprise.
It was also interesting to explore why people had attended the event. A Third Sector Research Centre Report cites a number of explanations for the recent emergence of social enterprise, two of which were particularly relevant to our event. Firstly, social enterprise is a response to the failure of the state (and/or market) to provide for citizens. This was reflected in the wonderful lunch, provided for us by Re-f-use. They are a local Christian social enterprise that uses food waste to run a café, whilst also providing meals on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis to support those impacted by food insecurity. The failure of the market to balance food need, and the failure of the state to provide support, has resulted in growing food insecurity
A second reason given for the emergence of social enterprise was the increased reliance on earned income to counter cut-backs in state financial support and philanthropic giving. Many of those attending the seminar were already part of well-established community projects that had been dependent upon grant funding but were now needing to diversify to enable their social action. For example, Rev. Nicholas Buxton’s passion for meditation, and engagement with people in recovery from addictions, led him to start the Newcastle Meditation Centre providing drop-in classes, courses, workshops and training. Meanwhile, the Trinity Centre in North Ormesby, despite being in a low-income parish, has developed a conference facility to generate income that supports their extensive involvement in the local community.
Over ten years ago Adam Dinham’s research, which included data from the North East, explored the role for faith based social enterprises. Dinham concluded that, while faith groups had much to offer social enterprise, there was also a sense of fear and unawareness. Whilst there was a degree of trepidation after our event, we also received feedback that people were excited and keen to learn more. So, the following week, a small group spent time considering how we could shape support and training in a way that is relevant to our context here in the North East. How can we support clergy, congregations and individuals to step out in faith and try something (that may fail), but has the potential to shape our ministry?
We chose to hold the initial event in St Edmund’s Chapel in Gateshead’s High Street because its history, like many, is one of change. From a hospital chapel to a nunnery, a builders’ merchants and an arts space, those that worship there have reimagined their ministry many times. Much like them, we do not have all the answers, but I believe the journey together is going to be exciting.
William Temple Scholar Val Barron considers the challenges and opportunities of Christian based social enterprise.
Like the Archbishop of Canterbury I have been doing much reimagining recently, although my focus has been church social action in the North East. I won’t repeat all the poverty statistics that are regularly churned out and almost immunise us to the reality of the millions of personal stories. What I will share are the conversations I have had over Easter that reflect the challenges facing congregations and clergy who are supporting people in their communities that are struggling.
Alan called me to discuss how he could raise funds to buy a tumble-drier for the local toddlers’ group as children were arriving with damp clothes and the mams said it would really help them to have this facility. A local vicar in Hartlepool has set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for a kitchen in their church where they feed up to 100 people every week, and a local vicar asked me to help find funds to take children off the estate during the summer holidays.
Like others around the country, churches are increasingly responding to needs in their communities. The latest CUF report Church in Action shows 70% of Anglican churches run three or more organised activities for the benefit of their local communities, such as parent/carer and toddler groups, community cafes, lunch clubs for older people, holiday clubs and youth work.
However, these church-based responses are insecure and vulnerable, not only reflecting the reality of many churches but also the ‘charity model’ we have adopted. While much of our activity is reliant upon volunteers there are inevitably costs associated although often relatively small. As my good friend Rev Bill pointed out ‘sometimes the church finds itself in the middle of a dependency food chain’. A cog on a machine turning ever depleting funds into services.
We find ourselves in vulnerable situations when it comes to social action for a number of reasons including;
Being too small. Over the last four years in Durham Diocese we have been working with our communities and providing grassroot holiday activities in areas where families find the holidays, especially during the summer, challenging. Thousands of children and families have enjoyed fun, food and friendship and many other year-round activities have resulted from these. However, time and time again we miss out on funding as the majority of churches don’t have the capacity to meet the funding requirements. And as Greg Smith1 noted back in 2004 local groups lacked information and capacity about opportunities and how to access funding. A report looking at Third Sector Trends in the North of England found small- and medium-sized third sector organisations in the poorest areas are much more likely to be experiencing significant income loss.
Being too big. There are many charities across the region that are well established church-based projects. As they have grown over time a number of staff have been employed, usually from the local community to run the projects and support the volunteers. They now find themselves in a cycle of looking for funding, taking up valuable staff time and leaving staff and the projects feeling vulnerable and unsure of the future.
Being church. A recent local grant was awarded subject to the church ‘adopting local constitution that clearly enables you to undertake non-religious community activity’. Although in its second year the ecumenical group was well regarded by community, local authority and funders there was still a deal of anxiety around funding faith groups. How do we remain authentic and honest while shaping our agenda to fit funding priorities? As Elaine Graham 2 reminds us we find ourselves between a ‘‘rock’’ of religious resurgence—or at least renewed visibility—and the ‘‘hard place’’ of secularism.
We are not simply another service provider. In Fullness of Life Bethany Eckley, Anna Ruddick and Rachel Walker explore how the church aligns their Christian faith more deeply with their community engagement; recognising that every person bears the image of God, we are designed to be in community, and the Church is a prophetic community. They look at models of co-production and asset-based community development opposed to the service delivery models that they feel have sometimes been uncritically adopted to respond to local need.
How do we understand Christian charity? A few years ago, I heard Professor John Barclay from Durham University giving a talk entitled ‘Debt, Gift and Reciprocity: From Charity to Co-Interest in the New Testament’. Although texts regarding wealth and poverty readily spring to mind, John warned that unless we paused and put things into context we could get things badly wrong. He reminded the audience that around 90% of the population were relatively poor and therefore co-dependency was central to community. He concluded that the principle strongly endorsed by the New Testament was reciprocity opposed to the one-way gift. He felt that although today’s economic structures were very different the goal of Christian charity should be to create networks of mutual gift and mutual dependence. If we reflect upon all the Church Social action we are involved in, how much would be shaped by reciprocity and how much is a one-way gift?
So how can we reimagine the church in action in a way in which allows us to be authentic, sustainable and not a cog in the dependency chain?
Wouldn’t it be exciting if our churches were places that worked with the community and built upon the skills and talents in these precious places to develop new relationships, share skills, build employment and economy?
Local social entrepreneur Kate Welch believes that “The Social Enterprise approach addresses all these issues by responding to poverty and other social problems with the right solutions and a business model that makes long term financial sustainability more probable. Exploring this at the outset with a clear vision for the social action, what will it achieve and how will it earn income, makes raising start-up funding creating enduring social impact more possible.”
My research over the next few years will be exploring how Christian based Social Enterprise could impact communities in the North East… so watch this space.
It will take a lot of reimagining and risk taking although as my friend reminded me, the church used to be a vanguard leading the way to tackle social justice issues. Imagine the impact of that now!
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1 Greg Smith, “Faith in Community and Communities of Faith? Government Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Urban Britain,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 19 (2004)
2 Graham, E. 2013. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Public Theology in a Post-Secular Age. London: SCM Press.
William Temple Scholar Val Barron considers how we move beyond the Taylor Review to build more sustainable neighbourhoods.
The recently published Taylor Review, made some interesting recommendations about how English Church and Cathedral buildings could become more sustainable. At the centre of these recommendations was the importance of greater community involvement.
“Increased use and helping communities in their broadest form to see the value and potential of the local church is the key to the church building becoming more self-sustaining and ultimately ensuring its long term survival.”
As a development worker for Communities Together Durham, and as part of the CUF Together Network, I read the report with another fundamental question. How can we provide a place of mutual flourishing for the church and the community?
The area of the country where I live and work has some of the highest rates of unemployment, zero-hour contracts and low waged employment; one consequence of which is that many parishes have adult and child poverty levels of over 50%. The other side of this ‘recession coin’ is that the North East has been hardest hit by government cuts.
Over the last five years research has shown time and again an increase in church based social action (CUF; 2015) and personally I have seen a growing number of churches in my Diocese and through the Together Network taking risks, working with new partners and responding to the issues they recognise in their neighbourhoods.
‘How can we respond?’ is a question I spend much of my time exploring with congregations, and although our small (and often elderly members) will never completely fill the void left by the failing state as Justin Welby challenged us to, I believe we have something very precious and unique in our communities that must be supported.
Working locally with local people; the churches are in the privileged situation of having a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in their neighbourhoods. Over the last year or more I have seen a greater recognition of the role of the church with more partnerships with local authorities and statutory agencies being established around areas such as Holiday Hunger and refugee resettlement.
I have supported a group of four ladies who were so worried about the families in their estate during the summer holidays that they started to cook proper dinners, (by proper I mean meat, veg and a good pudding). They always serve them in plastic boxes which initially I found odd after all the effort that had gone into food preparation but then I watched them put one aside for someone’s Mum, Grandma or Dad. Being part of the community, they knew who and where support was needed. Years on they have fed thousands, and, as importantly, had great fun with local children and families.
We have long relationship with our communities; during my first visit to Easington Colliery I asked what it was like to live there: ‘They come here and do stuff to us and leave’ was the reply. ‘They’ being local authorities, charities and agencies. Our gift is that we belong there, we are doing ‘stuff’ with our communities and we hopefully won’t be leaving.
Building upon the gifts in our communities; while recognising that there are challenges for us all in life, as Christians our starting point is that every person bears the image of God and has been given gifts and abilities. We are not a service delivery church but have time to sit with people, affirm their gifts and build from there. I have sat in a church kitchen where locals pop in and, after putting the kettle on, shared their stories. I have helped community lunches where locals bring vegetables in from their allotments in to add to the pot. As Matthew Barber describes, these are real Spaces of Hope.
We have not filled the void left by the welfare state, but we must not underestimate the importance of these small grassroots responses that are truly local, building upon local gifts and talents and responding to the local issues. Building community from the ground up.
So going back to the question of mutual sustainability and flourishing of the church and community, I believe we must start local conversations around the hidden gifts and talents and then together look at creative ways around income generation. I have conversations with so many skilled and talented people who remain dependent upon benefits, like the Syrian refugee who lives down the road who is an amazing seamstress but is unlikely to find paid employment here, or her neighbour who bakes wonderful party cakes.
Could the church set up a Social Enterprise that would allow us to build the local economy and in the process a more sustainable church and community? This is part of the question I will be exploring for the next few years as a William Temple Scholar.
In The Social Entrepreneur (2008) Andrew Mawson describes how arriving in a cold church in Bromley-by-Bow (with a congregation of 12 elderly people), he started not by looking at all the problems but for the untapped potential in the neighbourhood. Slowly, after taking risks and thinking creatively, the community (and the buildings) began to flourish.
Our churches hold a unique position in our communities. As daunting as it feels when sitting with 12 people in a cold church, with a leaky roof, maybe our new challenge is to work with our communities for our mutual sustainability and flourishing.
