Greenbelt 2013: Life Begins ...

My Greenbelt this year was rather different from previous years as we took a commission4mission market stall to the Festival and this reduced considerably the number of events to which it was possible to go.

The flipside was that being on the stall was great for meeting friends, as well as making new contacts. So, for me, the highlight this year was definitely time spent with others; in particular the members of my cell group, most of whom were at the Festival and two-thirds of whom were able to share the excellent (if, at times, historically inaccurate and lengthy) Communion service together. Mary Grey, MacDuff Phiri and Barbara Brown Taylor as witnesses giving powerful personal testimonies were by far and away the best part of this service which was well led by the Wild Goose Resources Group.

As with last year's music lineup, I found little that felt like a must-see; that is until we reached the final day when I watched the wonderful Thea Gilmore, had Courtney Pine as background music to final contacts and conversations on the commission4mission market stall before packing up the stall to the strains of Duke Special. I first heard Thea Gilmore at St Martin-in-the-Fields as part of a Christian Aid event for Trade Justice and fell in love then with her intricate yet direct word play, stunning voice and classic rock and roll stylings.

The literature stream was where I spent the most time this year. Malcolm Guite is a great performer of verse as well as being an engaging raconteur plus a knowledgeable and insightful speaker on poetry. He read from his sonnet sequence for the church year, Sounding the Seasons, and from his forthcoming collection, The Singing Bowl. His recommendations are, therefore, well worth following up and he particularly commended Michael Symmons Roberts' Drysalter, a session I was unfortunately unable to attend. His talk 'Upending the Rainstick' explored the nuances of the Seamus Heaney poem with this title in order to argue for poetry as a means of upending our perceptions of reality.

Jon McGregor gave a thoughtfully dramatic reading, laced with humour, of short stories from This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You. A panel session chaired by Andrew Tate and comprising Debbie Fielding, Simon Jones, Katherine Venn and Anthony Wilson aimed to survey the literature of the past 40 years. Struggling with this vast undertaking generated some amusement but relatively little light while considering teen fiction, literary prizes, markets, morality and spirituality.

The participants listed their favourite book of the past 40 years: Dart by Alice Oswald (Catherine Venn); New Addresses by Kenneth Koch (Anthony Wilson); The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Debbie Fielding); and any R.S. Thomas anthology (Simon Jones). Mark Oakley gave a moving talk on the effect which the poetry of R.S. Thomas had had on his life and ministry, drawn back to ordination training as he came to realise that absence is a vital and valid part of faith and ministry.

Absence, death of God and kenosis are all key concepts in Radical Theology which was discussed and debated in a stream developed by Kester Brewin, which involved John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins and Marika Rose. Caputo argued that Radical Theology is based on constant change because the impossible deconstructs every contemporary stance and space. In a panel session which ended the stream, Caputo used the example of Rosa Parks to suggest that this understanding leads to interventions in the present which seek to change reality in the direction of the impossible.

For me this makes sense of many of Jesus' sayings which are essentially impossible to fulfil. They are not literal demands but challenges to the comfort and stasis of wherever we currently are; the challenge to change is always before us, whether we are as saintly as St Francis or as evil as Hitler, not because of where we are but because the challenge and call is always out of reach e.g. be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Whatever we do as a result is temporary and provisional because always deconstructable by the impossible. What we do, then, is to create temporary signs of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the impossible. This leads to a position of doing the exact opposite to current teachings on Church growth. Instead of focussing on and doing a small number of things well, we are profligate in 'casting our bread on the waters' and create a number of projects/initiatives knowing that they are provisional and temporary.

This has been my underpinning ethos in life and ministry - discovered more through imagination, the Arts and the Way of Affirmation than through Radical Theology, apophatic theology and the Negative Way; all of which have been, for me, more recent interests - which has resulted in a past and current set of projects/initiatives which have/are lived/living and have/are died/dying. These include: Barking & Dagenham Faith Forum; Christians in the Workplace; commission4mission; Faith Communities Toolkit; Faiths in London's Economy; Living with other Faiths; New Life Church Centre & Noah's Ark Daycare Centre; Sophia Hubs; SOULINTHECITY Barking & Dagenham; and Voice of the People Trust.

Emotionally, I am constantly struggling with the birth pains involved with creating these temporary signs and also mourning the ending of them when they die, while understanding intellectually that this is the reality of their provisional and deconstructable nature. Genuinely living in change and flux is both creatively stimulating and emotionally draining at one and the same time. In reflecting on this year's Greenbelt event I think I may have understood and acknowledged this where I was unable to do so, although needing to do so, at last year's event.

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Thea Gilmore - This Road.
     

Legacy of marketisation, privatisation, economic stratification and social dislocation

In considering the continuing divisive effect of Margaret Thatcher's legacy and funeral, it is worth reminding ourselves of what was said about Britain in the Faith in the City report published by the Church of England during Margaret Thatcher's second term of office.

As is noted on the Church of England's website, the Commission which produced this report met during what was the first half of Margaret Thatcher's second term of office as Prime Minister:

"There had been little explicit policy change during her first term in office regarding urban regeneration. What the report designated as 'Urban Priority Areas' did however feel the harsh impact of other policies as unemployment increased, public spending and taxation were reduced and a change in approach to the welfare state was initiated. The policies which put the market to the fore were beginning to take effect: it was claimed that the 'slump years' were over as inflation was reduced and privatisation caught the public imagination. Many of the problems highlighted stemmed from changes in society which could be associated with the demise of traditional industry. Other factors identified included estate design; institutional racism; poor quality housing; and lack of investment in educational and social services."

What the report says was actually far more damning than the above sounds:

"We have to report that we have been deeply disturbed by what we have seen and heard. We have been confronted with the human consequences of unemployment, which in some urban areas may be over 50 per cent of the labour force, and which occasionally reaches a level as high as 80 per cent - consequences which may be compounded by the effects of racial discrimination. We have seen physical decay, whether of Victorian terraced housing or of inferior system-built blocks of flats, which has in places created an environment so degrading that some people have set fire to their own homes rather than be condemned to living in them indefinitely. Social disintegration has reached a point in some areas that shop windows are boarded up, cars cannot be left on the street, residents are afraid either to go out themselves or to ask others in, and there is a pervading sense of powerlessness and despair ... It is our considered view that the nation is confronted by a grave and fundamental injustice in the UPAs. The facts are officially recognised, but the situation continues to deteriorate and requires urgent action. No adequate response is being made by government, nation or Church. There is barely even widespread public discussion."

As Gary Younge notes in today's Guardian, Margaret Thatcher's "is a living legacy of marketisation, privatisation, economic stratification and social dislocation." Her policies caused "a grave and fundamental injustice" in society at the time and continue to do so today.

My father, Phil Evens, was in ordained ministry during this part of this period setting up The Voice of the People Trust to sponsor Christian ministry in Urban Priority Areas through community work projects linked to parishes and the Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project which was particularly successful in reaching out to young people on the streets and steering them away from criminal and anti-social activities towards further education, training, employment and faith. His third book, Despair and Hope in the City, published in this period explored the relevance of community work to urban ministry. 

What follows is an account of a dream that my father had in the early morning after the 1987 General Election:

 

After watching the early election results, I went to bed at 3.00 a.m. and had the following dream ...

 

I dreamt that an elderly but important relative had died. In my dream I found myself outside the house they had lived in. It was quite small. All its furniture and possessions had been brought out lining the nearby streets and overflowing into a large warehouse type building. There was an amazing amount of furniture, bric-a-brac and general family possessions, from such a small house.

 

Many well dressed, upright looking relatives and, any people who had any conceivable connection with the family, had come from everywhere. They were moving around the furniture, lining the streets, pulling out drawers and taking anything they fancied. When I came near anyone they all looked as though they were politely looking on. As I went around, in my dream, I became increasingly concerned and bewildered at what was happening. No one seemed to be around to control or stop this.

 

In the warehouse type building the furniture and possessions were stacked on raised walkways. Here, some people, mainly young people, rushed off when they saw me coming and hid. One fell off the edge in the rush and I managed to reach out and draw him back to safety.

 

As I moved around this enormous collection of family possessions I found thrust into my hands a large glass container, beautifully made, into which had been put a few valuable family treasures - some small pieces of silver and a number of flat packs of what seemed like old one pound notes. I felt an increasing sense of distress at what was happening.

 

On waking up the dream remained vivid and the following thoughts immediately came to mind ...

 

The old relative who had died was the nation of Great Britain, and the small house was the United Kingdom. The nation's real wealth and assets, that had been a vital part of this small house and its family life, had been plundered by the well-dressed, polite and, in appearance, respectable people who, inside, had been rapacious and greedy. This wealth had now been dissipated and was no longer available for the home or its family life. I felt a deep sense of sadness and loss.

 

The interpretation of the dream was concluded by a picture of the Monarchy and the Royal Family. They were the only possession that the patriotic poor, the deprived, the dispossessed, now had that linked them into the life of the nation. Everything else of worth had been taken away from them and now belonged to the rich and powerful.

 

The final thought that came to me, was that I wouldn't wish to be in the shoes of Margaret Thatcher or her cabinet members for 'all the tea in China'. She, and her Government, had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

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Elvis Costello - Tramp The Dirt Down.

Laurie Green: Hearing the voice of the people

Yesterday, the Diocese of Chelmsford said goodbye to Bishop Laurie Green who has been the Area Bishop of Bradwell since 1993, serving an extremely varied region of South Essex. We were reminded during the presentations at the end of the farewell service of Laurie's very significant contributions in affirming ministries, encouraging community engagement, and bringing us into the heart of the mystery that is God. He has also had a much wider ministry throughout his ordained ministry and his time as Bishop of Bradwell including chairing the Church of England’s Urban Strategy Consultative Group and of the ecumenical National Estate Churches Network. Laurie has also had a significant ministry in encouraging the application of theology to life. We were reminded that his seminal book is called 'Let's do theology' and not let's talk theology or let's read theology.

I first encountered Laurie through his support of the Voice of the People Trust, a charity formed by my father Phil Evens as a seed bed for inner city community engagement. Laurie wrote the following in support of Voice of the People which I think sums up some of the main thrusts of his ministry:

"When the Church report, 'Faith in the City', was published, the Government ran wild with fear and even managed to accuse the Church of England - yes, the Church of England - of producing a Marxist report. It seemed to me that what made them so anxious and made them want to scupper the report was that it asked a very basic question - Why can't ordinary people make decisions about their own lives? Why should inner city people not be allowed to voice their own concerns and be given the wherewithall to do something about them? It was this simple question which seemed to scare the powers that be. Those in power in our society are very willing to raise a bit of money for projects which ease the plight of inner city people but they are still not prepared to learn from the voice of those who have an altogether different experience of society from theirs - the voice which comes from experiences of the joys and the oppressions of the inner city. The 'Voice of the People' is a realistic response to those questions in the Report and comes from a deeply felt Christian concern that since all of us are made in God's image, then we should all be listened to - all God's children should have an equal voice. 'The Voice' [the Trust's newsletter] tries to act as a vehicle for working-class values and working-class culture to be expressed and for working-class Christians to have a say. The powers that be will learn a lot from listening to the Cry of the City just as in the Bible, time and again, it was the cry of the people at the bottom of the pile that was the voice that God listened to and upon which God acted.

But I can't blame big business for not wanting to follow that more radical path of listening and learning from those who on the face of it can only be recipients of their gifts. But wouldn't it be great if as well as gifts flowing from the rich to the poor, the rich would also be prepared to receive the gift that the poor have to give to them - the voice of experience - the experience of being vulnerable and unprotected from society. The rich are protected from the harsh realities of our society and so they are in no position to understand it - because they don't see it. I welcome projects like 'Voice of the People' and wish there were more of them so that those in power could hear what things are really like in the society they control and so that ordinary men and women can share their hopes, aspirations and Christian beliefs."

It was a great joy to us as a family that I was ordained Deacon by Laurie and we wish him every blessing in the challenges of what will, no doubt, be an active retirement through which he continues to engage with these same issues.

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Martyn Joseph - He Never Said.

Voice of the People - Part 7

Bringing his story right up-to-date, in his retirement my dad has had to deal with the deaths of his son Nick and his sister Jean. Combined with several different health problems over this period, he has experienced periods of depression as well as grief.

During this period he has also worked on and completed an MPhil based on the 'Woven Cord' programme that he ran at St Edmunds Tysley. This was an extensive piece of applied research that summarised his knowledge of and views on Celtic Christianity and its application to urban communities.

Andi Thomas, one of the young people that Nick supported and helped through the Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project, has, since Nick's death, continued several of the initiatives that Nick began. This includes taking young people from Birmingham on expeditions to Uganda and supporting the work of the Salem Brotherhood in that country. My dad has worked with Andi to turn these activities into a charity called Rejunevate Worldwide.

Together with my mum, he has also been actively involved in supporting the Headstart group that meets at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. This group provides a place where people with experience of head injuries can tell their stories and support each other.

The Queen Elizabeth is the hospital where he is now receiving treatment himself following brain damage caused during a cardiac arrest. Please pray for him as he is not expected to recover consciousness.

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Mike Peters - Strength.

Voice of the People - Part 5

What follows is the Mission and Values statements for the Voice of the People Trust, as an indication of the values and concerns of my dad:

Mission Statement

The Voice of the People Trust exists to initiate and oversee projects and initiatives which seek the glory of God in faithfully obeying the biblical imperatives to bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives, receiving of sight to the blind, set free the oppressed and announce the time has come when the Lord will save his people (see Isaiah 61: 1 - 2, Luke 4: 18 - 19). The Trust understands its task in obedience to these imperatives to include listening to God's voice in the desire for good news, liberty, sight, freedom and salvation in the people of Britain's inner cities and outer estates.

The Trust believes that such obedience will involve patterns of work and organisation which are innovative and flexible.

Values statement

We draw our values from the character of God as revealed to us in the words and life of Jesus, and through the Bible. Jesus spoke of God as a holy and loving eternal Father (Matthew 6: 9 -13). Jesus is our human example of perfection and reconciliation being held together. His holiness did not stop him from being accepted by sinners and social outcasts, nor did His compassion compromise His holiness.

• Incarnation: The Trust will aim to get outside of church buildings, and the organized network of church based activities, into the places where non-churchgoers congregate. Our staff will be people who both share the culture of the people with whom we work and can communicate the values contained in this statement. (Hebrews 2: 14 - 18, Luke 4: 14 - 21, Matthew 9: 36, Mark 5: 1 - 10).
• Redressing disadvantage: We aim to positively discriminate in order to prioritise services for disadvantaged people and, to campaign for social justice for them. (Mark 11: 15 - 17).
• Equality: We aim, after taking account of the prior value (Redressing disadvantage), to demonstrate God's commitment to equality by working to ensure that no one is discriminated against in any prejudicial way that is neglectful, hurtful or harmful. (Galatians 3: 26 - 28).
• Value: All people have value as uniquely gifted creations of God who retain in some measure the image of God and for whom Christ died. We aim to express this sense of the value of people by; listening and empathising, supporting and empowering, creating services requested by users, and by not abusing in any respect (confidentiality, professional boundaries of expertise or conduct etc) the users of our services.
• Listening: We aim to develop projects based on the expressed needs of local people using the skills of local people. We are ready to listen to people, to their story, as they tell it, within their culture and to act on the basis of these stories. (Acts 1: 8 and 1 Corinthians 7: 17 - 24).
• Responsibility: The Bible teaches individual responsibility for actions because all must account for their lives to God. We will aim to empower people using our services in order that they are able to develop their skills and make informed decisions for themselves with an awareness of the consequences of their decision making.
• Service: We aim to serve our users and each other. Managers will serve by providing, within available resources, all that their staff require in order to provide services to our users. Staff will serve by providing services to users, within agreed parameters, to the best of their ability. (John 13: 12-17, Ephesians 5: 21).
• Innovation: God's relationship with the world is a creative, renewing one (Isaiah 43: 18 & 19, Revelation 21: 5). As a result we are committed to experimental and innovative developments that link into contemporary needs within multi-ethnic UPA areas.
• Partnership: The equality that exists in God's kingdom derives from a God-given unity in which individuals with differing skills and experience co-operate in order to achieve an overall aim. We are, therefore, ready to create relationship links between what we hear from local people and self-help groups in the neighbourhood and are ready to see a more meaningful relationship develop between the local Christian community and society around it.
• Quality: The Bible encourages giving our best in all we do as everything should be done for God (1 Peter 4: 10). Therefore, we are looking to improve continuously the services we provide, aiming to get things right first time but also to learn from any failure. Biblical evaluation: We believe that the unchanging truths about God as revealed in the Bible and the historic Christian creeds are directly relevant to the inner-city. We will therefore regularly evaluate our actions, activities, procedures, policies and statements against Biblical frameworks and models. We aim to allow these truths and values to inform every aspect of our organisation. (1 Peter 3:13).

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Galliano - Prince of Peace.

Voice of the People - Part 4

Here is a description of the approach and achievements of the Youth Project that my dad set up in Aston, Birmingham:

The Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project sought to reach out to 16-25 year old young people on the streets of the Aston and Newtown areas to steer them away from criminal and anti-social activities towards further education, training and employment.

A model for social inclusion

The approach used by the project is a model of social inclusion which can be set out under five headings:

• Outreach: project workers went out to where disaffected people were and contacted them on their own territory – the streets. In Aston and Newtown over 30% of project workers’ time was spent on outreach leading to contact with 30-40 young people on the streets during any week. Of these, approximately five in any week were be new contacts. Project workers were supported by people within existing local structures but worked outside of these structures;
• Affirmation: project workers affirmed people by going to them where they are, uncovering their interests and developing activities that reflected those interests;
• Empowerment: people learned valuable personal and social skills through the experience of setting up activities in partnership with the project workers;
• Role models: the project workers were examples of people with “street-cred” but who were also successfully integrated into the local community. They were, therefore, appropriate role models teaching social and personal development skills by example;
• Re-integration: as much as possible existing community resources and facilities were used in running project activities (the project deliberately did not use a centre-based approach where people would be expected to come to the project to use its facilities). This meant that disaffected people were re-introduced to the community from which they had felt alienated with the support of the project workers. Social skills could be discussed and developed through this process of re-integration.

Importance of relationships

In the project’s work, uncovering the interests of the people with whom they were working was the vital first step in building relationships that resulted in people re-integrating into the local community. Once known, project workers set up activities that developed the interests of these project participants. Working with them on activities that interested them developed trust and provided opportunities to discuss and address the roots of their disaffection. Programmes were individually tailored to meet the interests of each participant. Young people, for example, are no different from the rest of us and develop a sense of being valued only when they are listened to and their interests and ideas taken on board. It is this experience rather than that of working in particular settings that young people find most valuable.

Relationships are an important way in to understanding social exclusion. We all exist in relation to our local community as we access local services and facilities. However, for some people their relationships within the local community become strained and this effects their access to local services and facilities. The reasons for this are many but include unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. A breakdown of relationships in one aspect, for example exclusion from school, impacts on all other aspects. In this way to view social exclusion in terms of relationships is a means of considering the issue as a whole rather than as a series of separate issues.

When an individual’s relationship with their local community breaks down two things tend to happen. First, the disaffected person rejects existing community structures and organisations. Second, the person views relationships formed outside of the local community as more positive than those formed within it. This is often the experience of disaffected young people who draw their role models from peers involved in crime and drug taking and then seek to win the approval of such people. To genuinely counter the effect of the negative relationships people from within the local community must go outside its existing structures and services to build positive relationships that pave the way to re-integration.

Those structures and organisations that have been rejected by disaffected people are not best placed to be able to win those same people back. The project’s work in local partnerships was, therefore, often at the recruitment end of the development spectrum, seeking to ensure that disaffected people in most need were not left out. As a result, thought should be given to targeting disaffected people specifically through organisations outside of established local and central government networks who can demonstrate success in contacting, involving and re-integrating such people.

Examples of achieving social inclusion

Kieran* was part of a gang from the South Aston area of Birmingham heavily involved in car crime. He also had a problem with solvent abuse. This led to his being charged for a number of offences. He was on probation at the time that the project workers first made contact. Kieran was out of work, so had plenty of time to get involved with the project activities. It soon became apparent that he had a real talent for climbing. This developed to the stage where he was able to lead climb up to a severe standard. Kieran came on the first project expedition to the Alps even though he was on probation at the time. He gained full time employment as a carpenter and became a voluntary leader with the project helping other young people on trips away.

Mike* was fourteen when he first became involved with the project. At the time there had been a family breakdown, which resulted in him moving into foster care. His schooling was severely disrupted and he became involved in petty crime. Soon he was a regular on all project activities being especially keen on climbing and camping. On leaving school with no qualifications he went to college and studied sports. At the same time he helped as a volunteer worker for the project. His dedication and hard work eventually paid off when, in 1997, he was taken on as a full-time sports youth worker for the project. He successfully completed his SPSA training and other courses.

* Names have been changed.

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Nanci Griffith - It's A Hard Life.

Voice of the People - Part 3

My Dad has been a man of commitment and integrity throughout his life. He is, without doubt, the person from whom I have learnt the most. At this point in his life when he is so ill I would like others to know a little of what it is about him that has been so special to me and many others. What follows, in this and subsequent posts, is a little of the man that we know and love in his own words:

"The Voice of the People Trust was formed to: work at the grass roots level of our society; encourage Bible-based experimental and innovative projects in disadvantaged, urban communities; listen to the voice of people and groups in such areas; and devise projects that link into local need using self-help community development principles where appropriate.

The Trust undertook the following work:

• Applied Research: A confidential survey was carried out among Angelical Parish Clergy ministering in The City of Birmingham's 72 Urban Priority Area Parishes. The results were published, in 1990, as Despair and Hope in the City - Community Work: What relevance to a C/E parish struggling to survive in an "Urban Priority Area"?


• Project Evaluation: A blueprint for detached Community Youth Projects was developed. This blueprint was adopted and implemented in the Aston and Newtown areas of Birmingham. A community centre project was fully revised. This revision was successfully implemented by the church involved. A volunteering project was planned and funding obtained. The project was successfully implemented by the church involved. The management committee of a outward bound youth project was re-structured.


• Publishing: The Trust published a series of wide ranging and accessible papers on Biblical urban involvement: Despair and Hope in the City; Ten 'Thoughtsheets' - occasional papers covering a variety of aspects of church-based community involvement; Voice of Prayer the Trust's news, prayer and information magazine.


• Youth Needs: The Aston Community Youth Project was set up by the Trust and began work in October 1989. It adopted a task-force approach based on self-help principles. It's workers were placed outside of existing church networks into the 'life space' of disaffected young people. The Trust set up a Management Committee of local people who after the initial starting up period took over the running of the project. The management committee later assisted churches in the Newtown area of Birmingham to duplicate the project. Both projects later amalgamated to form the Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project.


• Debt: The Trust published material on debt in a Thoughtsheet and unsuccessfully bid for funding to carry out a feasibility study for a Debt project in the B11 area of Birmingham.


• Ethnic Minorities: The Trust blueprint for the Community Youth Project enabled the project to become genuinely multi-cultural with this being reflected in its users, staff, management committee and partners. A Thoughtsheet was published about grant funding to ethnic religious groups.

Work on the Trust was carried out in conjunction with Phil's church ministry firstly, as a curate at Aston Parish Church and then as vicar of St Edmund's, Tysley. In both settings he was able to encourage the development of church led community action. He was helped in work on the Trust by three Trustees who also implemented aspects of the Trust's thinking in their local settings.

The Trust had grown from a small, localised think tank into a charity that was increasingly involved in fund raising and management issues for a number of different projects. The burden of the administration of this work feel solely on the Trustees and this began to prove too great for their voluntary input. In the autumn of 1992 the Trustees gave themselves 18 months to discover a solution to this problem. A development plan was produced and a programme of internal discussion, external consultation and fundraising applications begun.

Each aspect of this development programme was blocked throughout the allotted period. Attempts to expand the support base failed to bring any significant increase, funding applications were unsuccessful and consultations with church authorities encountered strong and, at times, hurtful criticism. As a result the Trustees took a decision to close down the Trust.

This whole process was a difficult and painful time for all involved in the Trust, particularly Phil. The parable of the mustard seed had been meaningful throughout the life of the Trust. At first the Trust viewed itself as a small seed that had potential for growth. Later, that growth occurred. Now, however, it seemed that the Trust itself had to die – Phil and the other Trustees hoped it would be reborn in some fashion."

What happened at this stage was that God began to lead Phil into a discovery of Celtic Christianity including a period of pilgrimage that began to challenge and develop further his own spiritual life. This discovery also complemented and assisted the exploration of spirituality that was underway at St Edmund's, Tysley. Celtic-based materials seemed to communicate well in an urban context and a project to study the use of such materials in an urban setting developed.

At the point that Phil's hopes and plans for 'Voice of the People' seemed dashed new and unexpected opportunities developed that fed into his thinking and acting on urban ministry.
Then, the Management Committee of the Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project stepped in and proposed a plan for continuing the Trust as a merger with the Youth Project.

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Stevie Wonder - Living For The City.

Voice of the People - Part 1

My Dad has been a man of commitment and integrity throughout his life. He is, without doubt, the person from whom I have learnt the most. At this point in his life when he is so ill I would like others to know a little of what it is about him that has been so special to me and many others. What follows, in this and subsequent posts, is a little of the man that we know and love in his own words:

Philip Alistair Evens was born, in 1936, into a North Somerset working class family - his father was a plumber by trade - living on the edge of the city of Bristol. He remained in that setting, and in membership of a strict non-conformist group called the Open Brethren, until his early twenties. After doing a variety of jobs, including clerical work, factory work and nursing (which gave him a real interest in people), he began studying through night school and correspondence courses for a GCE 'A' Level.

In 1958 he went to Leicester University where he obtained a special honours degree in Sociology, and then a certificate in Applied Social Studies (Social Work Training Course). He married during 1962 and then began work as a basic grade Social Worker (Child Care Officer) in Somerset. This process of social mobility led him to become, in 1965, the youngest Deputy Children's Officer in the country when he and his family moved to Luton. Here, he helped set up a new Children's Department, as Luton had just become a County Borough, and new, experimental projects such as the Bury Park Family Advice Centre in a multi-ethnic part of Luton. He also started a research project on deprived social needs areas at the London School of Economics.

In 1970, the family moved to Oxford where Phil entered Social Work education by becoming a Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at Oxford University (Department of Social and Administrative Studies). He discovered that he really did not 'fit' into that rather exclusive network of 'North Oxbridge Society' people. He was able to move back a bit nearer to his ideological 'home', and his working class identity, by setting up an Applied Action Research Community Work Project in 1973. This was a joint project between the University, the Local Authority Social Services department, Central Government and an international charity called the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The project was called the 'Barton Project' after the council estate on which it was based. Phil was appointed Director of the project. His experiences in this project and other contributions to the development of community work were published in a two volume series of books called Readings in Social Change. Volume 1 Community Work: Theory and Practice was published in 1974 and Volume 2 The Barton Project in 1976. Both were published by a company called Alistair Shornach Oxford, set up and marketed by Phil.

In 1976, following the massive inflation of the 1970's, the Project lost funding and Phil's job was re-structured away. He became unemployed, had to sell his home in Oxford and return, somewhat disillusioned, to his working class roots in Somerset. He became a £39 per week horticultural labourer, then did a TOPS retraining course in horticulture. Following this, he became self employed as a gardener/landscaper setting up his own business 'Wessex Gardening' with nil capital. This became successful and provided a healthy outdoor life for a number of years.

During this major mid-life crisis he, and his wife, put their roots down in the Church of England. Within this, Phil continued to do, as he had done for many years, to set up and run detached types of Christian youth clubs. From the end of the 1970's, this led into involvement in wider aspects of the ministry of Church of England - pastoral work, PCC membership, deanery stewardship officer - eventually resulting in a 'call' to train for the ministry.

Phil automatically presumed that, seeing as he was a working man enjoying the outdoor life and having re-created his human security following his redundancy, God would want him in the non-stipendiary ministry. He very much liked the worker priest concept. When interviewed by the Suffragan Bishop of Taunton, however, an Abramic challenge was put to him. Was he prepared to go forward in utter trust in God not knowing what the result would be, or where it might lead? Or, instead had he decided that it had to be NSM ministry in Somerset? This challenge was deeply moving as it touched very directly on the personal struggle of his wife and himself for survival and human security for themselves and their family. Being socially mobile from the factory floor to Oxford and then to lose it all had led to a colossal struggle to re-adapt to working class life and self employment. Now that he had succeeded in this, to give it up would be extremely hard.

After the interview, the Suffragan Bishop strongly advised Phil to go forward for full-time training saying, "The Church of England had been thoroughly middle-class in its ministry ... that the number of Priests available to the Church who could communicate with artisans and working-class people was at a premium ..." So, in a strange way, after leaving the city and experimental community work God seemed to be dragging him back again.

Following ACCM and the Bishop's acceptance of its recommendation, the family sold up and moved to Trinity Theological College. Whilst there, he set up a Trust to sponsor Christian ministry in Urban Priority Areas, mainly through community work project developments linked to local parish churches. He called it the 'Voice of the People Trust'.

During 1984, a Christian magazine called Grassroots had published a critique by Phil about the magazine and what, he perceived to be, its failure at that time to uphold its objective of being "a friend to the poor and oppressed". This critique argued against an 'issue' orientated approach which he equated with middle class thinking. This "allows people to be intellectually involved in discussion about social justice, the nuclear debate, the poor and oppressed etc. without this necessarily having any real effect on their own lifestyle". Such an approach allows "the freedom to maintain a split between the two parts of our nature, the intellectual beliefs (social justice etc.) and the emotional (the actual lifestyle adopted, affluent, cultured etc.)."

He argued that "it is more important to emphasise the work of the Holy Spirit in challenging the British class structure than to be concerned about issues of social justice, the nuclear arms race, feminism and the like. We need to be very cautious lest we are pressed into humanistic and secular objectives that are likely, in the end, to leave the poor, and the disadvantaged ... Instead we must try to discover what the 'voice' of the ordinary people really is and what their values are. We must do what Jesus did, to come down among the ordinary people and relate to them according to their actual needs. Only this will help all of us to move out from the social class stranglehold into the classless freedom of being sons of God."

A friend of Phil's challenged him not merely to write critiques but to actually do something about the matter of discerning more of the voice of under privileged people. The result was the 'Voice of the People Trust'.

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Gary Clail On-U Sound Syatem - (There's Something Wrong With) Human Nature.