Chris Beales R.I.P.

 

Chris Beales, who died on 12 January 2024, was a social entrepreneur working in housing and education and on issues of faith and economy, locally, nationally and internationally.

As Malcolm Brown writes: "Canon Chris Beales was probably the leading exponent of the partnership approach to Christian social action in the past 50 years. Always deeply committed to local ministry, his ability to connect social needs to potential solutions, and to gather resources for innovative projects, epitomised the Church’s latent convening power and commitment to social change. Chris got things done through a totally unforced charm and boundless enthusiasm, grounded in a profound affection for people and love of ordinary communities."

We met, as he explains in the video above, when he was working with Employment Focus and I was in JobCentre Plus. Employment Focus (originally known as Employment Forum UK) worked across the country with people of all faiths on employment, training and enterprise development. They held a series of major regional events, ran a Black Economic Empowerment programme, working with black majority churches, and a national Inter-Faith Action Programme. They also ran construction, ESOL and employability training programmes in London and Birmingham. During this time Chris produced "Catalytic Converters", a training programme to involve faith groups in social and economic development and service provision in their communities. Chris later ran a Catalytic Convertors course at St Margaret's Barking, while I was curate there.

Through our employment work we both met Saif Ahmad, then CEO of Faith Regen UK (later Faith Regen Foundation) and we both contributed in various ways to their work, as a multi-faith UK based regeneration charity, to reduce social exclusion. The multi-faith nature of urban Britain combined with the diversity and equalities agenda meant that those working in employment and training services needed to understand their customers and employees who were part of faith communities. This development provided an opportunity for me to work on the development of a Faith Communities Toolkit for Jobcentre Plus which provided information for staff on the nine world religions (including Christianity) represented in the UK and ideas and guidance on contacting and working with people of faith. Through Faith Regen Foundation, I was also involved in preparing similar resources for staff at Sainsbury’s, Calder UK Ltd and the learning and skills sector, more generally.

Chris and I later reconnected through HeartEdge when he participated in the above webinar which explored ways in which all churches can get involved in housing need locally and the theological basis for doing so. Chris had joined the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing when it was launched by the present Archbishop of Canterbury. Malcolm Brown writes that "His effervescent cheerfulness, mental acuity, and capacity for work, plus his genius for networking, made his contribution indispensable to the eventual report, Coming Home." He then, as a member of Executive Team following up the recommendations of "Coming Home", applied his energies to turning the recommendations into action.

In Church Times he wrote of how the church can be beneficial in bringing communities together: “Relationships have to be cultivated and trust established. In each local authority area, someone – clergy or lay – should be doing the research, meeting the planners and developers, building relationships, making friends, and feeding in ideas to be included in local plans and masterplans.

“In larger new housing developments, we have the chance to model places where housing is well-designed and caters for all ages, ethnicities, incomes, and circumstances; where facilities and services are easily accessible and to hand; and where schools and community facilities, open spaces, and sports and leisure facilities are local – creating places not of isolation, but inclusion: places where people love to live.”

His report ‘Building new communities in North East England: challenging church and society' identified significant new housing developments being built or planned in each of the 12 local authority areas across the region and explored the challenge of how to “build good community”; his aim being to lay the foundations for new strategic thinking and action by Churches and others, working with landowners, builders, planners, communities and all involved. Click here to read his report.

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Madness - Our House.

Enterprising Redbridge

Enterprising Redbridge will be launched on Wednesday 6th April at the Redbridge CVS networking event. This is a significant opportunity for the voluntary and community sector in Redbridge to get support to become more entrepreneurial. The first seminar open to all community groups that sign up, is on Thursday 21st April 6-8pm. For more info click on this blog and to sign up click here.

Ross Diamond of RCVS writes:

• Are you a voluntary sector leader in Redbridge?
• Wanting to make your organisation more sustainable?
• Want to explore new ideas and new ways of working?
• Want to find a positive critical friend to support you in making changes?
• Why not get involved in a project that aims to help organisations to become sustainable through being entrepreneurial?

In the current climate a significant reduction in the availability of grants, particularly from public sector sources, has resulted in some voluntary sector groups closing – leaving a void in local service provision. We believe some of this can be avoided. In order to help local groups move to a more sustainable future, we are offering a programme of seminars, networking opportunities and one-to-one advice on becoming more independently sustainable. We believe this package of support can provide the positive encouragement such groups need.

We know that solutions are not always obvious, as you tend to be (rightly) totally focused on your day-to-day operations.  So this programme gives you the opportunity to think beyond the day to day, the space to consider difficult questions in a safe place, and the chance to say the unsayable. We want this programme to inspire you, challenge you, support you and affirm the work you are doing.

Our goal is to inform and inspire 450+ local voluntary organisations to become more entrepreneurial through the provision of information and online tools. That’s a big ask. But it will depend on you. Your willingness to engage. Your desire to continue change.

For those most committed to trying new ideas or introducing change to their organisation, we will provide intensive tailored support to 10 groups not only to survive into the future but go on to thrive with greater independence.

Interested? Fill out the simple registration form.

This is a project that Sophia Hubs is partnering with RCVS. To read our blog about it click here.

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Deacon Blue - Win.

Enterprising Redbridge: making voluntary organisations more entrepreneurial

Welcome to Enterprising Redbridge … making voluntary organisations more entrepreneurial

In the current climate a significant reduction in the availability of grants, particularly from public sector sources, has resulted in some voluntary sector groups closing – leaving a void in local service provision. We believe some of this can be avoided.

In order to help local groups move to a more sustainable future, we are offering a
programme of seminars, networking opportunities and one-to-one advice on becoming more independently sustainable. We believe this package of support can provide the positive encouragement such groups need.

We know that solutions are not always obvious, as you tend to be (rightly) totally focused on your day-to-day operations. So this programme gives you the opportunity to think beyond the day to day, the space to consider difficult questions in a safe place, and thechance to say the unsayable. We want this programme to inspire you, challenge you, support you and affirm the work you are doing.

Our goal is to inform and inspire 450+ Redbridge voluntary organisations to become more entrepreneurial through the provision of information and online tools. That’s a big ask. But it will depend on you. Your willingness to engage. Your desire to continue change.

For those most committed to trying new ideas or introducing change to their organisation, we will provide intensive tailored support to 10 groups not only to survive into the future but go on to thrive with greater independence.

Sophia Hubs and Redbridge CVS obtained Big Lottery funding to commission Aspiren andUrban Catalysts to take the lead on this project. Take a look at the website for more information and register your interest now. www.enterprisingredbridge.org.uk.

This is an initiative that aims to bring business skills to the voluntary and community sector. We hope that this will make a significant contribution to Redbridge by enabling the sector to learn ways to become less dependent on funding and more resilient.

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Peter Case - Until The Next Time.

Sophia Hub pilot update - October 2013

 

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Chagall Guevara - Monkey Grinder.

Sparking off new developments

In a recent interview Peter Heslam has discussed his Cambridge multidisciplinary project, “Transforming Business," the value of entrepreneurship, thinking about enterprise solutions to poverty, and the wisdom of Abraham Kuyper and John Wesley when helping us think about the current economic crisis and recovery in light of the value of thrift, magnanimity and magnificence. The interview can be read at http://www.epsociety.org/userfiles/Interview%20with%20Peter%20Heslam%204.pdf.

In it he gives an interesting summary of the significance of Abraham Kuyper:

"Kuyper dominated the religious and political life of the Netherlands for nearly half a century, and during his career he achieved positions of eminence in a number of different fields. As a scholar he established himself early in his career as an academic theologian and provided the chief impetus towards the founding of the Free University, a university in Amsterdam with a Christian constitution. As a journalist he founded a daily newspaper, and remained its chief editor for almost fifty years. As a politician he organized the Anti-Revolutionary Party, a Christian-based popular people‟s party, and remained its leader for some forty years, during which time he served a four-year term as Prime Minister. As a writer of devotional and religious literature he launched a weekly religious journal, and published scores of meditations and works of applied and pastoral theology. As a church reformer he led a revival of orthodox faith within the national church and later established a new confederation of Reformed Churches, which has vast numbers of sister churches all over the world.

Taken together, his achievements indicate that he enjoyed a distinguished and multi-faceted career. But what is most striking about his career is that in virtually every area of his activity he sparked off new developments. His establishment, for instance, of the Anti-Revolutionary Party in 1879 along modern, democratic lines, signalled the end of liberal domination in Dutch politics and helped to make way for the rise of a more democratic and representative form of government based on modern party organization. Likewise, his founding of the Free University the following year, stimulated the proliferation of a great number of social and educational institutions founded on Christian principles."

For more on Kuyper, read Heslam's book Creating a Christian Worldview:Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism, published by Eerdmans.

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Paul Weller - Man Of Great Promise.