Faith(s) in the City

2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Church of England’s influential report on urban poverty called the Faith in the City Report. This historic report, first published in 1985, was released four years after Lord Scarman’s report on the Brixton disorders, and at a time of continuing urban unrest. Faith in the City asked what future is there for our inner cities and housing estates, and considers how should the Church of England, and other bodies, including government should respond. The report made recommendations to the Church about its place and responsibilities in the urban priority areas. Important recommendations were also made about public policy issues: unemployment, housing, social and community work, education, policing, and urban policy. In its call for action on a broad front, the Commission argued that Church and State must have faith in the city. One of the key consultants in the production of the Report was our then Director of Research, Canon John Atherton. 40 years on, through the leadership of our current Director of Research, William Temple Professor of Religion and Public Life Chris Baker, we will be honouring John’s memory and the role of the Foundation in the production of Faith in the City and the seminal work it offered, with a series of public events during 2025. We will be curating these in partnership with Ripon College Cuddesdon, the Urban Theology Union (based in Sheffield) and the Church Urban Fund (and their Near Neighbours programme).

Gatherings in 2025

During the year, under the leadership of our Director of Research Professor Chris Baker, we are curating gatherings that consider critical issues and themes resonant in the orignial Faith in the City Report, and reflect on their pertience and purchase in the post-secular public sqaure in the 21st Century. As part of our campaign, Senior Research Fellow Greg Smith has curated a series of Urban Tracts on themes from Faith in the City.

Faith in the City 40 years on – a roundtable at Ripon College.

Our first gathering is in May 2025. On the 15th ands 16th May, a 24 hour roundtable will be curated at Ripon College Cuddesdon, bringing together historians, theologians and activists who were working in the 1980’s; as bodily present or as part of their research, to explore Faith in the City, its relevance and impact in its own context. Alongside, we will convene dialogues with contemporary theologians and activists to question the usefulness of the approach of, content and theology of the report for our context today. We will ask critical questions: What today would be different contextually? Would our concerns and questions be the same? Would it have the same public reception and response?

Faith in the City @ 40 (North) – A day conference at Victoria Hall Sheffield

Our second gathering is scheduled for Saturday 12th July 2025. The gathering is being curated with the Urban Theology Union (UTU) who are led in this project by UTU Trustee and Foundation Senior Research Fellow Greg Smith. Greg describes the gathering in the followign terms,

“This gathering is an open conference which also marks the 40th Anniversary of the publication of the influential report of Archbishop Runcie’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas. While the Thatcher government rejected Faith in the City as “naive Marxism”, and largely ignored its recommendations to the nation, it was followed by more than a decade of extensive initiatives in urban mission in the Church of England and other denominations. Much has changed over 40 years, but issues of urban poverty and injustice have not disappeared, and there are few signs that Churches and other Christian activity are flourishing in such places. Indeed there are signs that neither government nor church are making them a priority for action and investment, and that people living there are increasingly feeling left behind. This conference, one of a series of events across the country, is a chance to reflect on the theology and practice of urban mission, then and now. There will be input from leading practitioners who were involved in the 1980s, and those who are leading mission and church activities today. It will be of interest to anyone who lives and works in the inner city, or on social housing estates. We hope it will encourage and inform, and be a catalyst for a renewed movement to develop Faith in the City and hope in urban churches and communities.You can book a place via our Eventbrite page from mid February onwards“.