The Big Society and the small acts of individuals

Redbridge deanery synod tonight was on the topic of the Big Society. The main speaker was Daniel Singleton, National Executive Director of FaithAction, a network of Faith based and Community organisations serving their communities by delivering public services (such as childcare, health and social care, housing and welfare to work). Daniel has recently written a FaithAction booklet setting out a faith-based response to the Big Society called ‘How to eat an elephant’.Daniel said that the Big Society is not a policy but a philosophy. It is to do with the choices made by individuals and, therefore, is at the micro level of society. It will be shown by random acts of kindness and involves a move towards a more neighbourly society. The Big Society has to start and end with the small acts of individuals.

In our church clusters we then discussed what we could contribute to the Big Society in Redbridge in future, what will we want to question about the Big Society in Redbridge in future, and how will we do that.

In my introductory remarks I said the following:

Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, has said that "If we're searching for the big society, [religion] is where we will find it."

He had two reasons for making that statement. First, he quoted new research by the Harvard sociologist Robert Puttnam, showing that places of worship still bring people together in "mutual responsibility": “The evidence shows that religious people - defined by regular attendance at a place of worship - actually do make better neighbours.”

Second, he argued that: “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness.”

The truth of this can be demonstrated through research commissioned by the Cinnamon Network; a group of over 100 Chief Executive Officers of faith-based charities developing responses to the Government's Big Society agenda. Their research reveals that churches and their congregations contribute significant time as well as monies to their communities.

The 284 churches involved in the sample delivered a total of 439,000 hours of volunteer service in the last 12 months, which equates to 1,925 per church on average. These churches contributed £1,234,000 to finance social action work, or £7,568 per church, spent on an average of 3.3 projects.

Projecting these figures against population and church going for the UK gives an estimate of 72 million hours of volunteering for Church-led initiatives over 12 months.
We don’t have equivalent figures for Redbridge but we do know on the basis of the Big Society Mapping Event that was organised last year with Redbridge Council that a wide range of services are currently delivered by faith groups including:

·   Services/facilities for children – toddler groups and crèche facilities; uniformed organisations; support for parents;

·   Services/facilities for young people – detatched youth work; football clubs; drug and alcohol projects;

·   Service/facilities for adults – ESOL classes; healthy living classes;

·   Services/facilities for elderly – day centres; nursing homes; inter-generational projects;

·   Other services/facilities – counselling and bereavement services; confidence building; book and art classes; fitness classes; and Neighbourhood Watch.

We also have an agreed database where a fuller and more detailed picture of faith-based contributions to the Big Society can be gathered – that is the database maintained by Redbridge CVS – and you have all been given a copy of the form to use for entering details of your voluntary and community services.
Once we have this better map of the voluntary service contribution of faith groups to this borough then, as well as our contribution to the Big Society being better recognised, two further possibilities can come into play. First, our buildings could be considered for the delivery of Council services and/or the services of other Government agencies. It makes no sense for precious local authority finances to be used on new builds when existing community buildings may have spare capacity? Use of existing community buildings, such as those we own, locates Council services firmly in the local community and provides support to the voluntary and community sector through rental income. That is a win win situation.
Second, faith groups, the wider voluntary and community sector and the local authority can then together take an informed look at the range of existing provision in the borough, signpost to existing services more effectively, identify gaps in provision, and work together to develop new services which meet real local needs.

An example of that occurring has already happened in the borough since the meeting as the increased numbers of homeless people in the borough was a major topic of discussion at the Mapping Event and since then the churches in the borough has started the new Night Shelter based at the Salvation Army in Ilford.
Our response to the Big Society should be that of a critical friend able to ask many questions about the direction of travel both here in the borough and nationally. The Archbishop of Canterbury articulated some of these issues last year in the edition of the New Statesman which he edited.

He wrote that:

“If civil society organisations are going to have to pick up
responsibilities shed by government, the crucial questions are these. First, what services must have cast-iron guarantees of nationwide standards, parity and continuity? (Look at what is happening to youth services, surely a strategic priority.)

Second, how, therefore, does national government underwrite these strategic "absolutes" so as to make sure that, even in a straitened financial climate, there is a continuing investment in the long term, a continuing response to what most would see as root issues: child poverty, poor literacy, the deficit in access to educational excellence, sustainable infrastructure in poorer communities (rural as well as urban), and so on? What is too important to be left to even the most resourceful localism?”

Our role as faith groups is, I believe, to ask these questions at the same time as we play our part in expanding the Big Society within Redbridge.

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The Harbour Lights - Last Port Of Call.

Disabled people are being betrayed

Ekklesia has an excellent short research paper which maps out the contours of a revolution in Britain’s benefits and welfare system.

The evidence "Karen McAndrew examines and evaluates indicates that, far from enabling and supporting sick and disabled people, the changes and cuts the UK government is making – disguised by a superficial rhetoric of compassion and empowerment, and eased by ungrounded prejudices stoked in sections of the media – are causing real harm and destroying the fabric of national care and genuine opportunity. Putting human impact centre stage, this paper sets out disturbing evidence that disabled people are being betrayed, the public misled, and the welfare system endangered. Here is yet more indication that the 'Big Society' is punishing the most vulnerable and eschewing social justice, by making cuts and implementing an inadequate patchwork of policies whereby under-resourced voluntarism cannot substitute for official, statutory neglect."

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Ian Dury and the Blockheads - What A Waste.

50/50 Auction and the Big Society

St John's Seven Kings held its 50/50 Auction today where 50% of the sale price comes to the church. Although we had stopped holding annual auctions and hadn't held an auction for three years, this one proved very successful.

This event, as with our other social and fundraising events, is an illustration of some of the reasons why churches generate community and contribute substantially to the Big Society. Those who organised the event gave a significant amount of their time in order to arrange a successful community event that generated funds for a community group and facility. The 220+ lots were all items that were being recycled by being sold and all sellers gave 50% of their income to the church. The event also brought together a wide range of different people from our local community to meet together for a shared activity which included shared food and conversation over the viewing of lots and lunchtime refreshments.

It would of course be possible to take a cynical line about our event seeing it simply as a money making exercise which is therefore tapping into consumerism or to argue a purist line that such fundraising distracts from the Church's core mission and reinforces stereotypes of the Church as an organisation which is always asking for money. Despite this event being a combination of gift and exchange economies, both these views ignore the significant levels of giving involved in such events and the degree of community engagement and cohesion that a regular programme of such events provide. Neither of these would be features of more commercially orientated sales or auctions and both are core elements of committed Christian living.

Earlier in the week, at Redbridge's Big Society mapping event, I quoted Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, as saying “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good ... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness.” Today's event is one small example of the point he makes being realised in practice and should be celebrated as such, particularly in a week where the main news item has forcefully demonstrated the corrupting and corrosive effect on personal, community and societal relationships of rampant aggressive consumerism.

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Sufjan Stevens-All Delighted People 

Big Society mapping event

Today I spoke on the Big Society in Redbridge from a faith perspective at the Big Society Mapping Event which I have been involved in organising together with the local authority. The event has developed out of meetings between the ecumenical borough deans and the local authority and was held at Holy Trinity Barkingside.
In my presentation I said:

The ideas that underpin the Government’s vision of a ‘Big Society’ – strong families, strong communities, strong relationships through the encouragement of social responsibility – are familiar to all faith groups. "If we're searching for the big society, [religion] is where we will find it," wrote Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, in his recent article in the edition of the New Statesman guest edited by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He had two reasons for making that statement. First, he quoted new research by the Harvard sociologist Robert Puttnam, showing that places of worship still bring people together in "mutual responsibility": “The evidence shows that religious people - defined by regular attendance at a place of worship - actually do make better neighbours.”

Second, he argued that: “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness.”

The truth of this can be demonstrated through research commissioned by the Cinnamon Network; a group of over 40 Chief Executive Officers of faith-based charities developing responses to the Government's Big Society agenda. Their research reveals that churches and their congregations contribute significant time as well as monies to their communities.

The 284 churches involved in the sample delivered a total of 439,000 hours of volunteer service in the last 12 months, which equates to 1,925 per church on average. These churches contributed £1,234,000 to finance social action work, or £7,568 per church, spent on an average of 3.3 projects. Projecting these figures against population and church going for the UK gives an estimate of 72 million hours of volunteering for Church-led initiatives over 12 months. When you add in other faith groups too that figure would be substantially more.

Equivalent figures could no doubt be replicated in Redbridge yet we do not have such figures to hand specifically for this borough. This event provides an opportunity to begin mapping the voluntary service contribution of faith groups to this borough and that will be the main focus of our discussion groups today. We know, however, that if properly mapped the voluntary service contribution of faith groups to this borough will involve the provision of buildings for a wide range of community activities and services combined with the delivery of a wide range of community activities and services.

Once we have a better map of the voluntary service contribution of faith groups to this borough, then two further possibilities can come into play. First, our buildings could be considered for the delivery of Council services and/or the services of other Government agencies. It makes no sense for precious local authority finances to be used on new builds when existing community buildings may have spare capacity? Use of existing community buildings, such as those we own, locates Council services firmly in the local community and provides support to the voluntary and community sector through rental income. That is a win win situation.

Second, faith groups, the wider voluntary and community sector and the local authority can then together take an informed look at the range of existing provision in the borough, signpost to existing services more effectively, identify gaps in provision, and work together to develop new services which meet real local needs.

Therefore, the work that we are beginning here today has real potential, not simply to recognise the real and actual contribution that faith groups make in our borough, but for developing a strategy in this borough that engages the voluntary and community sector, including the faith groups, as fully as possible in the development of the Big Society in Redbridge.

Finally, though, we also need to say that our response to the Big Society is that of a critical friend. We have many questions to ask about the direction of travel both here in the borough and nationally. The Archbishop of Canterbury articulated some of these issues in the editorial which he wrote for the edition of the New Statesman that I mentioned earlier.

He wrote that:

“If civil society organisations are going to have to pick up responsibilities shed by government, the crucial questions are these. First, what services must have cast-iron guarantees of nationwide standards, parity and continuity? (Look at what is happening to youth services, surely a strategic priority).
Second, how, therefore, does national government underwrite these strategic "absolutes" so as to make sure that, even in a straitened financial climate, there is a continuing investment in the long term, a continuing response to what most would see as root issues: child poverty, poor literacy, the deficit in access to educational excellence, sustainable infrastructure in poorer communities (rural as well as urban), and so on? What is too important to be left to even the most resourceful localism?”

Our role as faith groups is, I believe, to ask these questions at the same time as we play our part in expanding the Big Society within Redbridge."

We also heard from John Powell, Director of Adult Services and Housing in the London Borough of Redbridge and Tasnim Iqbal, Redbridge CVS and Chair of the Big Society Working Group for the borough. In small groups we discussed what kind of services and facilities faith groups in the borough currently provide and ways of working more closely with the local authority.
The event's aim was to gain an overview of the types of services and facilities that faith groups in the borough currently provide and how faith groups and the Council can work together to develop new opportunities. There was general surprise at the wide range of activities and services delivered by faith groups in the borough while issues of housing and homelessness were identified as the most pressing issue curently where new initiatives are required.

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Arcade Fire - Ready To Start.

Upcoming events and ministry

I have a busy but varied few days coming up taking further several different strands of ministry.

On Sunday morning I'll be preaching at St Paul's Harlow on epiphanies and the Emmaus story as part of ongoing work that commission4mission is undertaking together with the parish of St Paul's Harlow and St Mary's Parndon. This is designed to develop temporary and possibly permanent artworks in the parish and will also involve a Study Day on 'The value of public art' on Saturday 19th September at St Paul's Harlow.

Sunday afternoon brings our annual ecumenical Praise in the Park event; communal hymn singing led by a Salvation Army band at the newly refurbished bandstand in Seven Kings Park.

Monday sees the start of commission4mission's exhibition at the Crypt Gallery in St Martin-in-the-Fields, include the private view between 6.00 and 8.00pm that evening. Sixteen commission4mission artists will show 40 works in a variety of media, including concept drawings, fused glass, paintings, reliefs and textiles. I will be showing three pieces: the first combines a poem and image; the second is a page from the prospective book of Stations of the Cross images and meditations that Henry Shelton and I have compiled; while the third will be one of my most recent paintings, but having done some new work today I am currently unsure which piece to show.

Finally, on Tuesday I will be speaking on the Big Society in Redbridge from a faith perspective at the Big Society Mapping Event which I have been involved in organising together with the local authority. The event has developed out of meetings between the ecumenical borough deans and the local authority and will be held at Holy Trinity Barkingside from 10.30am. The event's aim is to gain an overview of the types of services and facilities that faith groups in the borough currently provide and how faith groups and the Council can work together to develop new opportunities.

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Peter Case - Beyond The Blues.

New Statesman and Big Society

The latest edition of the New Statesman has been guest-edited by Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and has managed to put the cat among the pigeons as he used his leader to warn the coalition government that it is committing the country to "radical, long-term policies for which no one voted". Reaction to his piece is being collated on the New Statesman website and can be read by clicking here.

Dr Williams commissioned a wide range of essays, articles and reports in conjunction with New Statesman editors for the 80-page special issue, including articles by Philip Pullman on being a "Church of England atheist", Iain Duncan Smith on cracking down on welfare abuse, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on why religion can build a better society than the so-called "big society", Gordon Brown on how the world is failing young people and Richard Curtis on malaria, being commissioned by an Archbishop. He also discussed Libya, torture and Britain's declining role in the world with Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Looking at new research by the Harvard sociologist Robert Puttnam, Jonathan Sacks writes that places of worship still bring people together in "mutual responsibility":

"The evidence shows that religious people - defined by regular attendance at a place of worship - actually do make better neighbours."

The research shows that this willingness to give time to volunteering is directly tied to the frequency with which they attend a place of worship. Sacks suggests a reason for this:

"Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness."

"If we're searching for the big society, this is where we will find it," writes Sacks. However, he is not romantic about this, and expresses some reservations about the big society agenda:

"Does this mean that we are about to become more religious as a society, or that charity is an adequate substitute for government spending, or that faith communities are our only source of altruism? No. Britain, relative to the US, is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past."

All particularly apposite as today I firmed up details of a Big Society Mapping Event, organised together with the London Borough of Redbridge, for faith groups in the borough which is to be held on Tuesday 5th July from 10.30am - 1.00pm at Holy Trinity Barkingside (Holy Trinity Church, Mossford Green, Barkingside, IG6 2BX).

The event will include presentations from Tasnim Iqbal, Redbridge CVS and Chair of the Big Society Working Group, and either Cllr Alan Weinberg, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, or John Powell, Director of Adult Social Services. The event will provide faith groups with an opportunity to contribute information on the kind of services and facilities that we currently provide in the borough and to explore how faiths group and the Council can work more closely to provide new opportunities in the borough.

I'll be contributing to the event on the Big Society in Redbridge from a faith perspective and will no doubt draw on some of the Chief Rabbi's insights.
 
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The Holmes Brothers - Feed My Soul.

Spiritual Life: Big Society

This is my Spiritual Life column about the Big Society which was published in yesterday's Ilford Recorder:

Recently I attended a conference on what the Big Society might mean for the Church, where I heard Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and Rainham, state that he is a big fan of the Big Society. As the Big Society is viewed as David Cameron’s big idea this was a surprising statement for a Labour MP to make, so what were some of the factors that led to this position?

He began with his Irish Catholic, working class, Labour background, which gave him a communitarian disposition. Communitarianism is about balancing individual rights with the interests of the community as a whole and it developed, in the twentieth century, from the Catholic Workers Movement. As a result, the Big Society is not new and has a significant Catholic heritage on which we can draw.

Next, was the example that the Church has provided in his constituency during a period of considerable change. There, the Church has played a central role by holding the line in the tensions of change; tensions which saw far-right councillors elected and then defeated in subsequent local elections. The Church in this situation acted as a just institution enabling the release of virtue and supporting human flourishing.

These thoughts about the Big Society provide a viable alternative to the selfishness inherent in our market-led consumerism and the over-heavy control of the ‘nanny’ state. They suggest that there is a different way of living and being socially; that life is more than earning and spending.

That certainly doesn’t mean that all is well now. Where the axe of cuts is currently falling makes the Big Society less likely. People in our community are struggling because of the withdrawal of 'safety nets'; the least well off are paying the price for the recession.

It doesn’t have to be like that, however. Successful community campaigns in this borough show that people of all faiths and none care deeply about what happens to this borough and the likely effects of cuts in Council services. Jon Cruddas quoted Oscar Romero who said, "Aspire not to have more but to be more." Maybe if we all thought like that, the Big Society could become the cornerstone of a new politics and the new centre ground.

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Eddie and the Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do.

Saving Goodmayes Library

TASK has been active over the past month in generating a community campaign which has resulted in Redbridge Council withdrawing its controversial plan to close Goodmayes Library. This is how the story was reported by Sarah Cosgrove of the Ilford Recorder:

'Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sue Nolan told The Recorder she has decided to withdraw the budget option to close Goodmayes Library, in Goodmayes Lane.

"I have attended a number of meetings to discuss our budget proposals and as with last year I have listened to the community, I believe that there are alternative ways of providing the services in Goodmayes Library and I now look to the community to help deliver this valued service," she said.

"There has been much talk about how we should provide the service in a different way and we are talking to other neighbouring Boroughs in relation to shared services but would welcome any initiatives that the community would also like me to consider."'

The fact that Cllr Sue Nolan has withdrawn her proposal to close Goodmayes Library is important but it was also important not count our chickens yet, so a group opposing the closure still handed in to tonight's Cabinet meeting a massive petition, tallying nearly 6,000 signatures as a record of our strength of opposition. Speeches made by our group covered the personal and community benefits of the current services, inadequacies in the closure case, and, in my remarks, proposals for a more strategic and engaged approach to involving the voluntary and community sector in future.

I said:

"It is excellent news that the proposal to close Goodmayes Library has been withdrawn and that Councillor Nolan is now looking to look to the community to help deliver this valued service. However, that, by itself, is not sufficient if we are to learn lessons from the way in which the process of reviewing the budget proposals has been handled to date. Simply to wait for community proposals and initiatives is insufficient because it results in a piecemeal approach to the issues and their solutions.


What is needed is a strategic approach to engaging with and involving the voluntary and community sector as part of a positive approach to the Government’s Big Society agenda, which can also encompass the immediate issue of how to find savings in the Council’s overall budget.

I suggest that taking a strategic approach to the issue would involve a comprehensive and detailed consultation with all voluntary and community sector organisations in the borough to audit their facilities and services and to seek ideas on the types and forms of community involvement which could preserve services and deliver cost savings. In addition to the possibility of services run by voluntary and community organisations, options could also include location of services in existing community building and increased use of volunteers, among other options. To undertake this kind of consultation would result in far more useful outcomes for addressing the current budget challenges than the pseudo-consultation which is the Redbridge Conversation and which tells the Council nothing substantial in terms of how to address the issue practically and creatively.

Such a strategic approach would also identify the real impacts of the cuts proposed. Cuts proposed by one Council department regularly impact on the work of other departments without these effects being identified and the real cost of the proposals is therefore not considered in decisions made. One example is the decision to close the Aldborough Road South toilets which impact on the playscheme in Seven Kings Park and on use of the playscheme by children from Downshall Primary School. The playscheme is a wonderful addition to the Park and the children at Downshall School have been consulted in its design but if the toilets are closed Downshall School will be unable to take groups of children to the Park and playscheme. This is a hidden impact as far as the paper assessing the budget proposals has been concerned because the proposals have not been developed or assessed strategically.

The strategic review, for which I am calling, will result in a more informed set of proposals and should become a standard part of the proposal development process in future."

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The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down!

The Big Society

Last week Paul Trathen and I were at the Big Society – what does it mean for the Church? conference on 'The Big Society' organised by the London Churches Group, Mission in London’s Economy and the Diocese of Southwark Public Policy Group.

We began with some excellent input and debate from Andrew Stunnell, Jon Cruddas and Debra Allcock Tyler. Jon Cruddas was, as is usually the case, particularly good value. He supported several initiatives with which I was involved in Barking & Dagenham, including the launch of the Faith Forum. More recently, of course, was the General Election campaign in the borough and in his remarks he paid tribute to the involvement of the churches in the Hope not Hate campaign which contributed to the defeat of the BNP.

These are some highlights from what he said:

• Big fan of the Big Society which could become the cornerstone of a new politics; the new centre ground? But a somewhat elusive concept.
• Irish Catholic, working class, Labour background -communitarian disposition. Therefore, Big Society not new.
• Change in Dagenham. Church has been central - held the line in tensions of change.
• Big Society - sphere between ineffective markets and over-heavy state. Notion of 'good' society fundamental critique of market-led economy. More than earning and money.
• Big Society - critique of statism. Labour has become statist and secular as opposed to being, in Dylan Thomas' phrase, "parochial and magical".
• Aristotle spoke about the release of virtue - just institutions that allow human flourishing.
• People in the community are currently struggling because of the withdrawal of 'safety nets'. the least well off are paying the price for the recession. Where the axe is falling is making the Big Society less likely.
• This is a radical Government, although I disagree with their decisions. It could be a vehicle for ther unfinished business of the Thatcher era. An exercise in economic and cultural disenfranchisement.
• "Aspire not to have more but to be more." - Oscar Romero.

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Staple Singers - Reach Out, Touch A Hand, Make A Friend. 

Vision of God's reordering of the world

Along with many others in the Diocese of Chelmsford, I've been looking forward to the arrival of the new Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell. His inaugural sermon and other materials introducing him to the Diocese illustrate why we are excited about the possibilities for the Diocese under his leadership:

"God has called us to build the kingdom of his love where a new humanity is revealed and made available. And, if I can borrow for a moment the phrase of the hour, the ‘Big Society’ was always our idea first. It is this vision of God's new community and God’s reordering of the world that brought me into the Church in the first place; and it is this vision that sustains me. And it is this - and this only - that we will joyfully seek and celebrate together while I am your bishop ...

Jesus says that his Church must be ‘salt’ and ‘light’. And let me remind you that here salt does not mean you are supposed to be like the little sprinkling over your chips to make them taste a bit nicer. It is preservative. This is what Jesus means; like a piece of salted cod - you stop it from rotting. This is what Jesus longs his Church to be: a household of peace and joy where true and lasting values are held, taught and celebrated.

And light. We are supposed to be light; light that shines in the darkness. Light that reveals the way. Light that dispels fear. Jesus says that we, his people, are supposed to be ‘a city set on a hill ’ receiving and radiating the light of Christ.

So, brothers and sisters, who are we - gathered in the midst of this Cathedral today; this motley band of muddled and broken humanity? We are the inheritors of a great vocation. We are the ones who are called to share the light of Christ today and shine with that light in our own lives.

This is what Basil Jellicoe did in the slums of London. This is what William Temple taught. This is what countless Christian people are doing every day in the diocese. And it is to this that we recommit ourselves: nothing less than the beauty of the Gospel and the building of God’s kingdom here."

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The Alarm - Presence of Love.