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Dignity, Agency, Power
Stories, prayers and reflections from 40 years of Church Action on Poverty
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With thanks to Chris Howson and Matt Sowerby for supporting and inspiring contributors, and to Clara Rushbrook for advice and support
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Dignity, Agency, Power Stories, prayers and reflections from 40 years of Church Action on Poverty
Edited by Niall Cooper, Chris Howson and Liam Purcell
www.ionabooks.com
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Contents of book © individual contributors Compilation © 2022 Niall Cooper, Chris Howson and Liam Purcell Published 2022 by Wild Goose Publications Suite 9, Fairfield, 1048 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 4XS, Scotland the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. ISBN 978-1-80432-001-3 Cover image © Guernica | Dreamstime.com The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book. All rights reserved. Apart from the circumstances described below relating to non-commercial use, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher via PLSclear.com. Non-commercial use: The material in this book may be used non-commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher. Please make full acknowledgement of the source, and report usage to the CLA or other copyright organisation. Niall Cooper, Chris Howson and Liam Purcell have asserted their rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work. Overseas distribution Australia: Willow Connection Pty Ltd, 1/13 Kell Mather Drive, Lennox Head NSW 2478 New Zealand: Pleroma, Higginson Street, Otane 4170, Central Hawkes Bay Printed by Bell & Bain, Thornliebank, Glasgow ®
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Contents Introduction 12 Foreword 15
Section 1: Dignity Dignity: an introduction
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Grounding – voices of experience 22 – Stef Benstead: “Every person has been created by God and that’s what gives us our dignity.” 22 – Sandra Rice: “Small changes can make a big change.” 23 – North End Pantry: “We want to reach people in the area and build relationships.” 25 – Food bank: “We yearn for the day when no one comes in.” Movement story: the Pilgrimage Against Poverty 29 – Tempted to slide back into mud: vigil/service outline – I clothe myself this day 34 – Some people 34 – I believe 35 – Compassionate God 35 Praying – prayers and worship materials 36 – Liturgy with the people of the Bible 36 – Why should we rejoice? – a gathering prayer – Come to the table – a call to worship 42 – Saying nothing 43 – Hagar (Genesis 16) 44 – A confession 45 – Brokenness 45 – Lost and found 46 – Drawing the line 47 – Angel unawares 48 – God is among us 49 – The man by the pool 50 – A closing blessing 51
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Dignity, Agency, Power Thinking – Bible studies, reflections and sermon notes 52 – Scripture from the Margins: The unjust judge and the persistent widow – Scripture from the Margins: The dishonest manager 55 – God is with us: A reflection on the story of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with a haemorrhage (Mark 5:21–43) 58 – What does dignity mean? 62 – Dignity, Agency, Power and Jesus 65 Writing – poetry 67 – Poverty is many things 67 – To restore one’s soul 68 – Listening 70 – I hit the wall 71 – Untitled #1 72 – The pub won’t let him in 74 – No words … 74 – Poverty is like a bike 75 – Shame echoes 76
Section 2: Agency Agency: an introduction
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Grounding – voices of experience 84 – My name is Gary 84 – Kath Carter and Maureen Hagan: “People were listening to me.” – Phil Teece: “Citizens are capable of making the decisions that will affect them most.” 86 – Images for change: “We treasure our view. Don’t give it away to someone new.” 88 Movement story: Poverty Truth Commissions – Poverty, truth and poetry 93 – Be-longing 94 – A parable or pointing out the obvious 95 – The prophetic voice 96 – Brokenness and vulnerability 97 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … 98 – I see a new heaven and a new earth 99
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Contents Praying – prayers and worship materials 100 – You call us 100 – Bartimaeus 101 – A different light 103 – Old Tim’s blind kid 103 – Do you know me as I am? 105 – A Eucharistic prayer 106 – Turning over the tables 109 – Prayers of the people – intercessions 110 – Love has no alibi 112 – Interrupting prayer 113 – He knows what I really mean 114 – A Pentecost story (John 20:19–23) 116 – Food bank lament 117 – Do not be afraid – a closing prayer 118 Thinking – Bible studies, reflections and sermon notes 119 – Radical participation in the kin-dom of God 119 Example 1: The Gospel in Everton, Liverpool 121 Example 2: The Gospel in Wythenshawe 122 Example 3: The Gospel in Sunderland 123 In conclusion 128 – Wisdom or riches? 130 – Outside-in church 130 – The rejected becomes the cornerstone in the Kingdom of God Writing – poetry 136 – Up against it 136 – i have a voice 137 – Soul traveller 138 – Nothing changes around here
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Section 3: Power Power: an introduction
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Grounding – voices of experience 145 – Wayne Green: “It’s a battle of invisibility and being blamed for society’s problems.” 145 – Debt On Our Doorstep 147 – Penny Walters: “Speak up. Shout loudest.” 148 – Tia and Corey: “We thought we were the only ones who knew about food poverty.” 150 – Matt Sowerby: “Poetry can make the world a better place.” – Living Wage Churches: “People should be paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work.” 154 Movement story: End Hunger UK 156 – Poems to end UK hunger 158 – #EndHungerUK 159 – Universal Basic Income 159 – Yellow stickers 160 – A closed fist 162 – Breadlines 163 Praying – prayers and worship materials 166 – Speaking truth to power – an opening prayer 166 – Being the change we want to see – an opening prayer 167 – Hope where all seems lost – an opening prayer 168 – Affirmation of faith where a community has gathered 168 – Three (women’s) voices 170 – Longing for justice – intercessions 173 – Come and save us – intercessions 174 – Come Holy Spirit – intercessions 176 – The parable of Maximus and Daniel: the second mile 177 – Love God and dismantle mammon – responses 179 – Dives and Lazarus 2021 181 – I preach the gospel 184 – Drawing in the sand 185 – A promise of heaven is fine if you’re dead 186
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Contents – – – –
Shrove Tuesday litany 187 A collect 188 Walking the talk blessing 189 We will speak your truth – a closing prayer
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Thinking – Bible studies 191 – Scripture from the Margins: Mary’s Magnificat 191 – Scripture from the Margins: Jesus cleanses the temple Writing – poetry 198 – The cry for justice 198 – Justice 199 – He knows what I really mean – Riches and honour 200 – The cost of living 202 – Poverty needs 203 – Moth 203 – Without love 204 – Manipulated by power 205 – Hangry 206 Sources and acknowledgements About the contributors 210
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Introduction & foreword
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Introduction Welcome to this anthology, compiled to mark 40 years of Church Action on Poverty’s work to end UK poverty. For all of that time, we have helped churches across the UK to embed a concern for poverty and injustice into every aspect of their mission, worship and communal life. We hope this publication will help more churches to make that commitment. (If you’re not familiar with Church Action on Poverty already, we hope this book will give you a good sense of our approach and values. You can always find out more – and get involved – at www.church-poverty.org.uk) We’ve grouped the content into three chapters, reflecting the key values that underpin our vision of a world free from poverty: dignity, agency and power. Those concepts are not as widely understood and embodied in our churches as we might like them to be, so we offer this collection as a challenge to reflect and take action. Kathy Galloway summarises the concepts brilliantly in her foreword, and our Director Niall Cooper explores them with some deeper theological reflection in his introductions to each chapter. Each chapter is split into several sections. This should make it easy for you to find what you’re looking for – whether you’re planning worship, studying scripture, or interested in people’s stories and creative writing. This is what you’ll find in each chapter: Grounding This section presents voices of experience – stories and testimonies from people who are active in the movement to end poverty. Some have personal experience of poverty; others are active in campaigns and projects tackling it. We hope the stories of their achievements, and the values that drive them, will inspire you. Movement stories This section of each chapter includes an in-depth story about an especially powerful event in the movement to end poverty: the Pilgrimage Against Poverty, Poverty Truth Commissions, or the End Hunger UK campaign. They come from different periods in our 40-year history, but they have all
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played a part in building a movement, and they all show ways forward in the continuing task of ending poverty. Each movement story also includes some prayers or poems, created as part of that event or inspired by it. Praying This section gathers together prayers, liturgy outlines, hymns, and poems on scriptural themes: a ‘grab bag’ of useful resources for anyone planning worship, or praying alone. Many of the prayers were originally written for past Church Action on Poverty events, such as Poverty & Homelessness Action Week or Church Action on Poverty Sunday. We’ve always aimed to help churches reflect on poverty issues in worship at events like these, and we’d love to see some of these prayers used more widely. Thinking This section includes Bible studies, sermon notes, and longer reflections on our themes. There are enough Bible studies spread through the book to run a short study programme at Lent or other times, if you wish. Writing This section includes poems and other creative writing inspired by our themes – often drawing on people’s own experiences of living in poverty, and their insights into how to tackle it. We hope you’ll see how the values of dignity, agency and power run through everything Church Action on Poverty does. They were also reflected in how we put this anthology together. All of our work is led by the real experts – people with lived experience of poverty. So a lot of the content and approach of this anthology was developed in participatory workshops, where experts by experience took the lead. You’ll see the results of that especially in the ‘Grounding’ and ‘Writing’ sections. We’re grateful to Revd Chris Howson (liberation theologian and
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chaplain at Sunderland University) and to Matt Sowerby (our 2020 poet in digital residence) for helping to facilitate that creative process. Our values are rooted in a belief that God is always on the side of poor and marginalised people – and that the church is called to be the same. That is reflected strongly in some of the content you’ll find in the ‘Thinking’ sections of this anthology. Rather than presenting Bible studies exclusively written by academics and middle-class church leaders, we’ve included reflections from participatory sessions exploring scripture in a Local Pantry, among people seeking sanctuary, and in poor and marginalised communities. This work was inspired by Latin American ‘base communities’, and you can read about it in the piece ‘Radical participation in the kin-dom of God’ in the ‘Agency’ chapter. We’ve also included four more ‘traditional’ Bible studies on the Gospel of Luke, spread across the ‘Dignity’ and ‘Power’ chapters. They follow an approach developed by Church Action on Poverty in recent years, which we call Scripture from the Margins, encouraging people to focus on the marginalised voices and perspectives in scripture that we don’t usually hear in our churches. (If you find them useful, more Scripture from the Margins Bible studies are available to download free at www.church-poverty.org.uk/bible.) As I write this introduction, it is autumn 2021. The pandemic has been a challenging time for all of us, but especially for people who were already in poverty, or were swept into poverty by the pressures of lockdown. Those experiences, still fresh in our minds, are reflected in some of the poems and prayers in these pages. The pandemic is not over yet, but as we move forward and think about what needs to change post-Covid, people facing poverty and exclusion must be heard, valued and included. That’s been Church Action on Poverty’s purpose for the past 40 years, and it will continue to be until we build a world free from poverty. We hope this anthology will help you to be part of the movement with us. Liam Purcell, Church Action on Poverty October 2021
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Foreword ‘Dignity’, by the Scottish band Deacon Blue, is one of Scotland’s most popular songs, sung at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Wherever the band perform it, audiences join in fervently. As well as being a great song with a great chorus, it expresses the human yearning to be treated with dignity, to live dignified lives, and most people can relate to that. The glory of God is a human being fully alive. So said St Irenaeus, and made explicit the link between human dignity and God’s creativity. Dignity is non-negotiable and unconditional. It does not depend on the criteria the world uses. The word ‘dignity’ itself derives from the Latin dignus, meaning ‘worth.’ Market forces do not set our value. We do not require value addition in God’s economy. We have intrinsic worth. It has always seemed to me that an unshakeable commitment to human dignity, and challenging the poverty that is a violation of that dignity, has been at the heart of Church Action on Poverty’s vision, values and practice for its 40 years. And agency, an act of trust in the right or capacity of each person to act and give, is an expression of human dignity. When it comes to confronting poverty, people who struggle against it day by day, who really know what it feels like, have insights and understanding that no one else does. It gives them the right to speak and act. Their ideas for action are a gift that no one else has. ‘Nothing about us, without us, is for us.’ Church Action on Poverty has enabled people to come together, often crossing social, economic and political boundaries, to share, to listen, to learn. It has done this in imaginative and fruitful ways. Building solidarity in this way can be slow and painful and frustrating, but it builds confidence in the possibility of change and transformation, in the belief that ‘yes we can!’ When it seems that everything is against you – hostile public discourse, uncaring and uninformed policy decisions, remote and unaccountable institutions (and there are plenty of all of these in the current climate) – believing in the possibility of resisting injustice and making effective and practical change is essential. This is power; not power over but power with and power to, the power to live fully human lives.
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A religious community which does not hunger and thirst for justice to be done bears false witness. The biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, reflecting on Israel as a community of intentional resistance to the oppressive power of Egypt, identifies what he calls liturgical resistance, the imagination of a free space outside the hegemony of the oppressor. Here is liturgical resistance in practice. This is a great book of witness. Kathy Galloway
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One
Dignity
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Dignity: an introduction Poverty is not entertainment, it’s not noble or romantic. Poverty is … heavy. It’s heavy hearts and heavy legs. It’s sore skin and hollow eyes. It’s upset and downhearted. It’s hunger. Malnourishment. It’s always thinking about the next meal. Poverty is bailiffs, it’s food banks, it’s queues and lists, it’s never being told what you’re entitled to but always being told. Poverty is being shown up then put down. The opening lines of Tony Walsh’s poem ‘Poverty’, written over a weekend workshop with a group of people who shared and reflected on their own personal experiences of poverty, reveals something of the indignity of living in poverty in the midst of a supposedly affluent society. Poverty is not only deprivation of economic or material resources but also, according to the United Nations, fundamentally a violation of human dignity. In the UK, poverty is strongly associated with public attitudes of stigma and blaming individuals for their own poverty. Professor Ruth Lister describes this in terms of the ‘othering’ of people living in poverty. Over many decades, this attitude has been embedded not just in the welfare system, but in the way many professional agencies exercise moral judgements and highly intrusive methods of controlling the behaviour of people living in poverty. These attitudes have also been internalised by people in poverty themselves, to the extent that they describe a sense of shame, or in the words of Wayne Green, who spoke at our first National Poverty Hearing in 1996: “What is poverty? Poverty is a battle of invisibility, a lack of resources, exclusion, powerlessness … being blamed for society’s problems.” The Churches have not been immune from these attitudes, too often treating poverty as a problem to be addressed through individual behaviour change, or in more theological language ‘saving’ people from their selfinflicted poverty. This is the context in which poverty – and even many
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conventional attempts to tackle it – rob people of their dignity, agency or power over their lives. In spite of this, Church Action on Poverty affirms the belief in the transformational possibilities of people coming together to reclaim their dignity, agency and power. As Duncan Forrester has written, “human beings are entitled to be treated with respect because they are of equal worth, independently of their ability, contribution, success, work or desert. That is the bottom line” (On Human Worth: A Christian Vindication of Equality, SCM Press, 2001). For Christians, the centrality of human dignity is based on the foundational theological principle that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. In On Human Worth, Forrester explores this theme in some detail: “All human beings are created in the image of God, they all share equally in this crucial, definitive characteristic. There is no question of some being more and others less involved in the imago Dei as the created order is concerned. The imago Dei speaks both of the importance of equal relationships and of the need to give equal respect, treatment and indeed reverence to all, for all bear the image even if now only in partial and broken form. The image of God is thus a way of affirming and interpreting human dignity.” (On Human Worth, SCM Press, 2001)
This approach to placing human dignity – and human rights – at the centre of a Christian response to poverty is also reflected in Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. As Maria Power has reflected, this “offers a new vision of society in which human dignity and the human rights of all are respected … He has always wanted to make it clear that his papacy is one of action – placing the needs of the poor, marginalised and disenfranchised at the centre of his ministry” (From Fratelli Tutti, by Maria Power, The Conversation website, 5 October 2020). God’s ‘preferential option for the poor’ is not some idea concocted by liberation theologians in Latin America in the 1970s, but a core element of Jesus’ life and ministry. In this section, Kate Brumby, Jimi Calhoun and Hazel Palmer reflect on different biblical passages which explore the same
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themes that elsewhere Aidan Donaldson has described in terms of ‘encountering God in the margins’: “The sense of fear, isolation, loneliness and rejection experienced by people living in the margins was no doubt experienced by many of those whom Jesus encountered. Throughout the Gospels we are told not only that there were numerous groups of people who were marginalised by society and whose human dignity was not recognised – including lepers, women, sinners and the poor – but also that Jesus actively sought out these people and brought them back into the community. What is remarkable, indeed revolutionary, about the way Jesus approached those who were social outcasts is that he preferentially reached out to them.” (Encountering God in the Margins: Reflections of a Justice Volunteer, Veritas Publications, 2010)
Many of the worship resources in this chapter reflect on the same theme: that God is frequently to be found on the margins, and in many ways turns upside down our conventional thinking about the importance of ‘the margins’ and ‘the centre’. As Anna Ruddick has said, “Our tradition reminds us that God kind of likes the margins. God isn’t a very ‘centre of power’ type God. God is a ‘create a world and entrust it to humanity, choose a people and follow them through their mistakes, prefer prophets over kings, choose a teenage virgin from Nazareth and become human, hang out with social outcasts and annoy the establishment, refuse to become their Che Guevara and instead wash people’s feet, die on a cross’ type of God. So God seems to be a marginal God, and God’s not the only one for whom marginal space is generative.” (In the Thick of It: Stories, Experiences and Reflections on God’s Kingdom in the Margins, United Reformed Church, 2020)
Equally, human dignity is not just a theological concept or a way of being church: It has real-life consequences for how we engage with poverty – and with people who experience it – in the here and now.
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In this section, Stef Benstead and Sandra Rice reflect in different ways from personal experience on the ways in which poverty undermines dignity. Josh Seligman reflects the hopes of many, in yearning for the day when no one will have to visit their church needing food. In 2016, the Independent Working Group on Food Poverty in Scotland placed the idea of dignity at the very centre of its plan for addressing food poverty: “A truly dignified system would be one where everyone is food secure, with access to adequate, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, without the need of emergency food aid. It is one where the right to food is understood as a matter of justice rather than charity.” The group – which crucially included people with lived experience of poverty – identified four principles which should guide a dignified response to food insecurity, but are of equal relevance to each and every attempt to tackle poverty: Involve people with direct experience of poverty in decision-making; recognise the social value of food in building community; provide opportunities to contribute; and leave people with the power to choose for themselves (Dignity, Ending Hunger Together in Scotland: The Report of the Independent Working Group on Food Poverty, 2016). Amongst the anguish of many, there are stories of hope. We share movement stories of Self-Reliant Groups and Local Pantries, reflecting on concrete ways in which Church Action on Poverty has enabled different groups of people experiencing poverty to come together to reclaim their own dignity. Niall Cooper
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Grounding – voices of experience Stef Benstead: “Every person has been created by God and that’s what gives us our dignity.” Stef knew first-hand how badly the UK was treating disabled people. She lived the truth herself, and heard similar stories the more people she spoke to. Stef knew it was time to speak up, so in 2019 she wrote her book, Second Class Citizens, highlighting the wrongs and calling for a better way. Stef’s motivation comes in part from her faith, in part from a desire to improve the lives of other people, and in part from a knowledge that things can be done in better, more dignified ways. She’s seen that herself, through the Manchester Poverty Truth Commission, of which she is a part. (See page 91 for more about Poverty Truth Commissions.) In her book, Stef writes that the goal of a modern society should be that sick and disabled people have as much access as possible to the same choices as everyone else, in terms of where to live, work or study, and what to eat, wear and do. That ideal has been hamstrung by the removal of support systems and flawed attempts to improve the system, often arising above all from a failure to consult and listen to people with first-hand insight. Dignity, agency and power in this context are inseparable. Stef says: “The importance of dignity is that it gives you back your selfworth. So often, people in poverty don’t have control over a lot of events around them. I’m on sickness benefits and I get reassessed every two years and I don’t have control over whether I’m going to have enough money to live off for the next two years or not. “People might be in private rental housing and they don’t have control over whether their landlord will come and make repairs for them or not. Or they’re looking for work and they can’t force an employer to offer them a job; they may be getting repeated rejections. “A lot of these situations can be very demoralising and they can strip away your confidence in yourself and in your ability to change your future, because you quite often don’t have a huge amount of ability to control your future. A dignified system would start from the assumption that people want to work where they can, and want to contribute, and the role of the
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state would be to enable that. “The Poverty Truth Commission brings you into a situation where you can make a change because you are talking to the people who have decision-making power and they are listening because they want to learn, and it’s dignified. Nobody thinks less of you because you are poor or are struggling or have been homeless. Instead, people recognise that you have some expertise, skills and knowledge that we all need. “That gives you the power again that most people have over a substantial part of their life, where you can make a difference in your own life but also in the lives of other people, so you know you are making a difference in the world. You are helping other people’s lives to be better, which everyone wants to do. “Humans are social creatures; we like to help one another out. Part of poverty is not just that you can’t support yourself; it’s not being able to help other people either because you’re so restricted in your own finances, your own time, your own resources. That is a really horrible place to be in. So to have people listen to you, to take you seriously, to implement your suggestions, to actually want to give you some control and give you the decision-making power, that’s a really wonderful experience.” Drawing on her faith, Stef adds: “Every person has been created by God and that’s what gives us our dignity. Part of how we worship God is how we live lives that display God’s character to other people, and part of God’s character is a massive concern for people in poverty and therefore, one of the things that Christians are called to do, to worship God and to serve him, is to stand up for people in poverty, stand up against injustice and work for change so that poverty can be eradicated.” Sandra Rice: “Small changes can make a big change.” How do we protect and rebuild dignity and power, with people who feel powerless and small? How do we nurture personal agency among people who, right now, need help? Sandra Rice co-founded Migrant Support, a group in Manchester that actively responds to those questions day in, day out, as they work not merely to walk alongside people marginalised by society, but to end that
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marginalisation. It is a lifeline and first port of call for many, providing practical support and social encouragement. Church Action on Poverty has partnered with Migrant Support to help some of the people they work with to set up ‘Self-Reliant Groups’. Each SRG brings together a group of friends to support each other and meet regularly: sharing skills, learning together, saving together (small, manageable amounts like £1 per week), and possibly forming a micro-business. See www.church-poverty.org.uk/srg to find out more. People arriving in the UK are often denied access to employment or support, but if our national systems don’t always reflect the compassion of our society, groups such as Migrant Support do. Sandra says: “People who come to Migrant Support feel they have no value or they have not been heard. Things that are a worry to them seem not to matter to the whole society. They feel they are tiny in size when they come to us. “At Migrant Support we encourage people to come together, to feel that this is a family for them. We create a safe place where friendly staff help them to move forward a little bit closer to employment, to formal education as well. “Getting involved with projects that actually help you to feel a bit better might sound very easy or simple, but to feel better about themselves is a big thing on the road to getting that dignity back, to a feeling of fulfilment or feeling of identity, and being part of something. “That’s a process that doesn’t come in one meeting or by meeting only one person or solving a problem. It’s a long journey and having people around them or in a group during this journey means a lot, because you not only gain the dignity of one person, but the whole group gains. “One of the key projects we do is the befriending, and peer support. People who come to Migrant Support are mainly looking for very specific needs or problems they want to solve, like calling the doctor or struggling for housing, or maybe they’ve been fired or they haven’t been paid. “Once the main problem is solved, the next thing is to reduce levels of dependency. They feel that because they can’t do things for themselves they need somebody else and in most cases that is because of the language, or because they do not know how to do things or are scared to have a phone call with somebody.
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“We have some students who speak English but when you give them the phone to speak with somebody, they just freeze; they can’t move forward. “They say it’s a matter of being able to rely on their own skills and feel confident, and therefore they increase their levels of English and communication skills. By being able to know how to do things, practical stuff, then they become themselves – they don’t need to ask anybody else; they feel confident enough themselves to call the city council to solve a problem, or call the school and solve a problem. We know this is happening when they’re not calling us any more, because they are getting more confident. “It’s slow steps. First, people have to feel the power to make change for themselves on a very small scale. Then it’s obviously being part of a community or volunteering or feeling they’re powerful, then it’s having their own community. “An idea of Migrant Support is to help people be aware that with any decisions that could be taken in the community, they have the power actually to raise their voice and the power to join other groups – not only or always with Migrant Support; they could join their own communities. If there’s an issue that matters to them, they could be able to talk about it. “Again, we go back to confidence … if they feel able to talk about issues that matter to them and they have the power to do it, they will. For instance, Self-Reliant Groups help them save money and then they think they could cook, or sell the products and get a little more income for themselves. The idea is that small changes can make a big change. That could be individually but also collectively, when voices are heard stronger and louder.” North End Pantry: “We want to reach people in the area and build relationships.” Local Pantries are providing an answer to a long-lasting question: How do we safeguard food access for all, without compromising on dignity? Churches, charities and community groups have wrestled with that question for more than a decade, and North End Baptist Church in Portsmouth was no different. The North End food bank had supported around 10,000 people in the
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five years up to 2020, and when the pandemic struck, the level of local need soared. Covid changed the way the team worked, but it also prompted some reflection. Was this the right approach, or was there a better way? Food banks can be vital responses in a crisis. But organisations seeking to nurture community need to prioritise dignity, choice and hope. The rapidly expanding Your Local Pantry network, coordinated by Church Action on Poverty, helps partners do that in more than 60 neighbourhoods around the UK, in community centres, libraries and above all churches, where two thirds of Pantries are based. Jo Green, one of the Pantry managers at North End, says: “We spoke to schools and other organisations. They were telling us they had families who needed help but who would not go to a food bank because of the stigma. It made us wonder what we could do. Our minister, Tracey, knew someone who ran a Pantry and we looked at a couple, and decided that becoming a Pantry was the way forward. “We closed our food bank at the start of April 2021, and three weeks later we opened as a Pantry. The stigma has certainly reduced. We have a lot of families now and we are finding that people really value it more because they are paying towards it.” The Pantry model is simple. Anyone who lives in a neighbourhood served by one can join. Members pay a small weekly subscription of a few pounds, and in return they can choose around £20 to £25 a week of groceries from the stock on the shelves. It’s a shop in all but name, but members can save the best part of £1,000 a year compared to supermarket prices. The first Pantries opened in Stockport several years ago, and Church Action on Poverty saw the potential for them to be rolled out nationally. The charity now runs the Your Local Pantry franchise network, which ensures all Pantries adhere to the same standards and values of dignity, choice and hope. Pantries are inclusive and foster relationships. People may join for the financial savings, to help reduce food waste, to support a local initiative or for the friendship, and nobody need know which it is. A recent study of Pantries nationally found the benefits are vast. Three quarters of members reported improved mental health, and nearly as many
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reported improved physical health. People feel more connected to their community and more than half had made new friends. During the lockdowns in particular, Pantries were vital in ensuring access to food and friendship. One Pantry member told us last year: “It helps our food budget go further, which in turn leads to less stress. Also, there’s a social side to it. There’s a group of us who always meet up now, we go to Pantry together, have a brew together, we’ve become great friends, and we’re from three different generations! That’s great for people’s mental wellbeing!” Jo says: “We want to reach people in the area and build relationships. With a Pantry, people come back every week and start opening up and you hear how much it means to people. We are a church so we can direct people in the church to the Pantry, and also let Pantry members know about other things like the toddler groups. We also have a Facebook page and people now recognise each other and are getting to know people.” The movement to end UK poverty rightly works towards long-term changes, so we can reach the point when all incomes are adequate to cover living costs. But while we press for that, we all need dignified responses on the ground that loosen the grip of poverty. Pantries do that. They are bustling triumphs of community, and can be the cornerstone for future progress at local levels. Food bank: “We yearn for the day when no one comes in.” If it weren’t for the plastic fold-up sign on the pavement in front of the door, few would know that this two-storey brick building with barred windows and spiked chains is a church, let alone a food bank. After climbing the stairs and pulling open the heavy metal door, I hear warm greetings from the woman who oversees the day-to-day running of the food bank and from a handful of other helpers. Their smiles and hellos lift my spirits. Most of them have lived in the neighbourhood for several decades and greet the clients with similar signs of recognition. After setting up tables and chairs on the plush red carpet, we stand in a circle and pray. We thank the Lord for his faithfulness. We ask him to provide for the needs of the people who visit today. We ask him for strength, discernment and good teamwork. For a few moments, we rest
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quietly in his presence. It’s not yet opening time, but someone stumbles inside. He has a rucksack and his clothes are dishevelled. He looks nervous, on his guard, perhaps a little ashamed. We invite him to have a seat and offer a cup of tea. One-on-one, I ask him some questions for our records, and he says he’s waiting for his Universal Credit payment to come through. Later, I listen to a woman’s tragic story of why she’s struggling to make payments. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a woman dressed in a hijab sitting with her children, who are playing with a model house and toy cars. The children’s laughter lightens the mood of the room. Another man tells me about his travels by foot across southern England and Wales. He’s a natural storyteller, and his story is interesting, but a new client has just entered the food bank, and several more are waiting in line, so I thank him and tell him his parcel will be ready soon. In the back room, two helpers rush back and forth carrying bags of food and toiletries. Each parcel has, among other things, a variety of grains, tinned fruit and veg, beans, meat, soup – even Kinder biscuits and coffee. Most of this food comes from the generosity of locals. On the first Saturday of the month, we run food drives at a nearby Tesco for donations. We stand at both entrances of the store with shopping carts, handing lists of needed items to shoppers on their way in. On their way out, some drop off packets of spaghetti, cereal boxes, bottles of cooking oil and other items that they’ve purchased for us. We are continually surprised by how much they give. “It could just as well be me needing the help,” they often say. Now, two hours later, the church is nearly empty of people. We sit down and rest. We feel a sense of accomplishment that another day’s work is done, but we yearn for the day when no one comes in needing food from us. Josh Seligman
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Movement story: the Pilgrimage Against Poverty One step at a time We journey onwards with God. This is pilgrimage. Nick Waterfield
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, as the world was counting down to the year 2000, hundreds of people took part in an extraordinary 670-mile journey. The Pilgrimage Against Poverty, organised by Church Action on Poverty, shone a light on poverty in the UK and pressed for change, mobilising and energising supporters all over the country as never before. The pilgrims began on the Scottish island of Iona in August 1999, and ended nine weeks later in London. Seven people walked the entire route. Dozens more completed long stretches. And hundreds joined in for a few hours at a time, walking through their own village, town or region. Along the way, the pilgrims prayed, visited local groups and projects, listened and learned, and discussed how poverty could be ended. Two people who remember it fondly are Val Simcock and Pat Devlin. Val was alerted to the opportunity by her daughter Emma, who was volunteering with Church Action on Poverty at the time. Val had been looking for a unique way to celebrate the turning of the millennium, and jumped at the chance. “I had no experience of anything like that before, and it was a magical time,” she recalls. “We became a close-knit group, and I recall we always seemed to be walking in sunshine. It was a time of prayer and penance as well as pilgrimage. We started every day with prayer and ended every day with a time of reflection.” Val had hoped to walk the whole way, but was delayed by family illness so instead joined at Glasgow. Ten years on from the pilgrimage, she wrote about it in Church Action on Poverty’s newsletter: “Our accommodation was very varied – sometimes we slept on church hall floors and at others we would be taken in pairs to sleep in the houses of local people. I am always reminded of this experience when I hear the
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Gospel story of Jesus sending out the disciples to spread his message – they too were totally dependent on the generosity of strangers for their bed and board. For me it was quite frightening but also liberating to have to put my total trust in God for all that I needed and the path I was to walk each day.” Pat walked two long stretches of the route: Berwick-upon-Tweed to York, and Birmingham to London. For Pat, the stretch near her home in the North East was particularly significant, especially when the pilgrims reached Jarrow, the starting point for the famous Jarrow Crusade in 1936, when 200 people marched to London protesting against local poverty. “When we arrived in Newcastle we arranged to walk from Newcastle to Jarrow and that became much bigger than anticipated,” says Pat. “For a lot of people in the North East, it was quite emotional. “Then, when we arrived in London, there were to be three representatives to go to speak to Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. I spoke mostly from the Church Action on Poverty perspective and there were two who had walked all the way, including Brian Wallis from the North East. Brian was unemployed and he had children who were not living with him. He had huge potential but had had an addiction problem. We all met Brian’s MP, and Brian was very aware of how extraordinary the whole thing was. It was very emotional for him when we walked into London, and he was very emotional that it was ending.” Looking back, Pat says: “It was the strongest experience of church I have ever had and I do not think I was alone in that. There was a real strong solidarity and camaraderie. It made me realise what it is to be part of the body of Christ – if one suffers, we all suffer.” Gavin Aitchison
* During the Pilgrimage Against Poverty, the pilgrims carried with them Tempted to Slide Back into Mud, a resource compiled by Church Action on Poverty containing a selection of prayers and poems and a liturgy. The churches which hosted the pilgrims on their journey used the liturgy to welcome the pilgrims when they arrived. Some of these materials are reproduced on the following pages. You could adapt them to use in different contexts.
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Tempted to slide back into mud: vigil/service outline The pilgrims gather outside the building, carrying candles, torches, and/or other appropriate symbols. The rest of the congregation wait inside. The leader invites the pilgrims to process inside with the following words: I was glad when they said to me Let us go to the house of the Lord Now our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you From Psalm 122, adapted by Christopher Irvine
In response, all sing ‘Christ, be our light’. A large candle or lampstand is brought in and placed in a prominent position. Let us be aware of God’s presence … (Silence) Opening prayer Jesus says, “I am the Way for you” And so we come to follow Christ Jesus says, “I am the Truth for you” And so we come to dwell in the light Jesus says, “I am the Life for you” And so we come, leaving behind all else to which we cling
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Scripture readings: Psalm 91, Luke 4:16–21 Reflection This can take one of several forms: a homily, a person speaking from experience about living in poverty, a selection of poems or readings from elsewhere in this book, or the following discussion points may be used to enable the congregation to reflect on the reading. What ‘Good News’ does this scripture reading bring to our world today? How do we hear these words in the light of our concrete reality? We may find that our basic assumptions about the message of the gospel are challenged by the reality of people’s lives. How are the churches ‘Good News’ to people living in poverty? How can the churches receive the contribution and gifts that all people bring? How can we enable everyone to play a full part in the life of our churches? Can we talk to a person living with poverty about their experience? Can we be open to their words of ‘Good News’ to us? Can we allow ourselves to be challenged by these questions? (Silence) Intercessions To be read slowly by single voices against a constant background of ‘O Lord, hear my prayer’, quietly sung For the people who live in this place … For people without work … For people struggling to make ends meet …
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For people who are sick in body, mind or spirit … For people trapped by debt … For people who are isolated within our community … Closing prayer Look at your hands, see the touch and the tenderness, God’s own for the world Look at your feet, see the path and the direction, God’s own for the world Look at your heart, see the fire and the love, God’s own for the world Look at the cross, see God’s Son and our Saviour, God’s own for the world This is God’s world And we will serve God in it May God bless you, may God keep you always, And lead your lives with love. Amen 1999 Church Action on Poverty team
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I clothe myself this day I clothe myself this day with shoes to protect my feet from the cuts and bruises of the road. I clothe myself this day with covering for my head from the glare of sun and heat. I clothe myself this day with garments to warm me from the shivering of rain and cold. I abandon myself this day to those who will wash my feet, who will hold me in the power of service. I abandon myself this day to those who need my clear thoughts, who trust me to speak in words of truth. I abandon myself this day to the naked skin of love, which has no protection but itself. Jim Cotter
Some people Some people know what it’s like to wait for hip replacements or the bus in the drizzle or a job for the phone to ring or benefit day or enough white, sliced bread for TB or the rent collector or glue ear to skip the house for the next quick fix slow foxtrot or fight to stop or love without bruises and others don’t. Anne Powell
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I believe I believe in the equality of all, rich and poor. I believe in liberty. I believe in humanity through which we can create unity. I believe in the love within each of us, and in the home, happy and healthy. I believe in the forgiveness of our sins. I believe that with divine help we will have the strength to establish equality in society. I believe in unity, the only way to achieve peace, and I believe that together we can obtain justice. Annabel Shilson-Thomas
Compassionate God Compassionate God, open our hearts that we may feel the breath and play of your Spirit; unclench our hands that we may reach out to one another in openness and generosity; free our lips that we may speak for those whose voices are not heard; unblock our ears to hear the cries of the broken-hearted; and open our eyes to see Christ in friend and stranger, that in sharing our love and our pain, our poverty and our prosperity, we may move towards that peace and justice which comes from you and so be bearers of divine reconciliation. Amen Annabel Shilson-Thomas
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Praying – prayers and worship materials Liturgy with the people of the Bible Welcome Opening responses Holy Trinity, you give dignity to all Remind us that we all are treasured by you Loving God, you lift up the lowly Remind us of people whose value is not seen Jesus Christ, you bring good news to the poor Remind us to reach out for justice for all Holy Spirit, you free the captives, you challenge and inspire us Empower us to build a society where everyone belongs Song Word and/or reflection A scripture reading, a story or a newspaper article about someone finding their worth, finding dignity, having a voice. And/or a reflection on a piece of art, a photograph, a piece of poetry. Response The young woman, pregnant without a husband She became the God-bearer (Luke 1:26–35)
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Wild Goose Publications, the publishing house of the Iona Community established in the Celtic Christian tradition of Saint Columba, produces books, e-books, CDs and digital downloads on: holistic spirituality social justice l political and peace issues l healing l innovative approaches to worship l song in worship, including the work of the Wild Goose Resource Group l material for meditation and reflection l l
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