How the Churches in Scotland's Poorest Areas Tackle Poverty

Ecclesia semper reformanda As long as religious leaders are quite content with the status quo, they will not be interested in looking at alternative ways of doing church. On the other hand, when church people realize that present structures are no longer relevant in view of a rapidly changing cultural context, then something must change. In the past decade, it is the churches in the poorest neighborhoods of Scotland that have realized most urgently the need for reform. It is these churches and their members – struggling against poverty – that are pioneering new church life for the rest of the denomination. In 2001, the Church of Scotland (in the Presbyterian tradition) received a report[1] that listed the ways in which the church no longer had much influence in the lives of the majority of people. Acknowledging that the church has often not kept up with the many changes in the society and is often being left behind; the report called for significant changes in the ministry and mission of the church: Our changing social context can be symbolized by the microchip, the Internet, shopping malls and the mobile phone. Changing social relationships are seen in the attitudes to sexuality, marriage, racial equality and gender roles. Changes in political dynamics may be seen in …the shifts in power through globalization from nation states to trans-national companies….The underlying core of [today’s cultural] values is that individual choice is the only absolute. The right to choose is the one inviolate principle for shopping, politics, relationships, genetics or religion. The authors of the report recognized that there is a great deal of spiritual openness within the society and that there are many people committed to following Jesus “but they will not or cannot express that commitment within the context of the local church.” While this openness to change was being expressed, there was increasing awareness that the very existence of poverty in a wealthy society is a judgment against the church that has failed to raise its voice in condemnation of the evil of poverty. The resolve of the church to address poverty is clearly stated in the report of the Priority Areas Committee to the General Assembly of the Church. Throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament the message of God is clear: to ignore those in poverty is to ignore the face of God… Through its witness, ministry and care the length and breadth of Scotland, the Church seeks to address the causes and symptoms of poverty. At the same time it seeks to concentrate its efforts – and to bend its resources – towards the very poorest areas. Priority Areas Sixty neighborhoods corresponding to the poorest 5 % of the poorest communities in Scotland have been designated as Priority Areas and it is here that we are concentrating our efforts. Of course poverty exists in pockets throughout urban and rural Scotland, but the Priority Areas are a specific place to begin. Considerable resources have been made available to these vulnerable church communities with heartening results. The report to the 2008 Assembly continues that in the midst of the fragility of these areas, there is also “immense creativity, resilience, determination and hope.” From these poorest communities come impressive stories that “demonstrate some powerful but often forgotten realties. They are not stories about poverty. They are stories of true wealth – the richness of faith and the wonderful resilience of communities to bring about life-transforming change. “They are not about places to which the Church brings God to the people but rather they are communities in which we recognize that God has always been present.” As the project developed, after much listening, people throughout the church and especially in the Priority Areas developed several guidelines for their work: The mission of the church is to serve. It was agreed that 70 percent of the congregation’s time and money would be dedicated to the surrounding community. The mission is to be engaged with the realities of today’s society and not to be culturally wedded to a world now largely gone. There is little attachment to grand narratives be they religious, political or technical. Most of life is lived locally to satisfy individual needs and desires. The new model for the church is different from anything that we have seen before. The congregation would live less by historical precedent and more by the future expectation by becoming part of God’s new creation. It is necessary to go beyond the usual statistics to find alternative measures of a healthy church. To overcome isolation, community is found today not so much in the neighborhood as at the workplace and even in Cyberspace. Church members gathered to discover who comprised the local neighborhood and to ask what are the compelling local issues. Congregations then assessed their own resources and generally concluded that their building (that had heretofore been seen as a burden having been built a century ago for a congregation ten times the present size) could be a valuable resource. How could it be used to serve the community? Many of the churches have since removed the pews, creating a smaller and more flexible space for worship and using the remainder and other underused areas in the building for all sorts of community activities. The most common feature is a café where people can meet for breakfast or lunch or just to have a coffee. One pastor reports that most of the pastoral work of the church takes place there, often with people of the congregation ministering to each other as well as to the needs of the wider community. In addition, there are a number of other activities that take place in the church building, ranging from exercise classes and yoga to Internet classes, English as a second language, debt counseling, teaching healthy menus on a limited budget and job training classes, for example, for restaurant work, a before and afternoon school apprenticeship for bicycle repair and senior citizen clubs. People in Priority Areas churches have come to realize that their whole community is comprised of God’s people and not only the Sunday people; the measure of a healthy church is not just those who are on the rolls or who attend worship. “I do believe that our life should be in the community rather than just behind the walls of the church and we in fact have a remit now to develop our church for the community. I think it is essential for people professing Christianity to be able to relate to the folk without their door. Our building could be such a good facility for the whole community.” --Jean McQuaker, from a Priority Areas church Economic justice As these Priority Areas congregations have found new strength, they have become aware that social change requires participation in the structures of government and the voluntary sector as well as service to their neighbor. The people struggling against poverty are beginning to speak out in the pubic square, and their participation has so far been welcomed by the municipal Councils and the Scottish Parliament. It is to help local people exercise their power in cooperation with others that the Poverty Truth Commission is being planned for March, 2009. There is no doubt that this extraordinary concern within the Church of Scotland for ending poverty is enhanced by the Scottish socialist tradition and society’s continued resolve to end poverty, as manifest in the 2008 report from the Scottish Parliament: We believe Scotland must tackle poverty because of the blight and strain which it places on individual lives, on the communities in which they live, and on society in general; we believe Scotland has a proud history and ethos of being a compassionate nation with a strong sense of social justice and addressing the needs of the vulnerable, and we want to embrace this ethos on the basis that it is simply morally unacceptable that over 20 percent of our children still live in poverty.[2] [1] A Church without Walls, a report from the Special Commission anent Review and Reform for the General Assembly of the church. [2] Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland, Scottish Government, January 2008