The Church of England has launched a 10-point strategy to help its thousands of rural churches survive and thrive.Many provided cool sanctuaries during the recent record-breaking temperatures – but they have the potential to play a much more strategic community role.The CofE has published 'How Village Churches Thrive,' a practical guide to help the churches – many of them historic listed buildings with small congregations – have a sustainable future.The strategy sets out 10 key areas "where applying relatively small changes can make a big difference to the revitalisation, recovery and renewal of our village churches, amplifying the efforts that may well be happening already."The publication comes as many rural churches are facing increasing pressures – financial, demographic and with the upkeep of buildings – to continue as centres of mission and ministry.In many places, one priest will serve several congregations, going from church to church each Sunday, or across a month.The 10 key recommendations set out in the strategy are:Extend a warm welcome. Think carefully and objectively about who your welcome is aimed at. Structure your welcome around strangers to the church, rather than those who are already friends.Make the most of life events – weddings, baptisms and funerals. Many people's first contact with church begins through the church being there for them at life's big moments.Use buildings creatively. With thought and planning, your buildings can provide opportunities for people to connect with the community.Care for 'God's Acre.' Your churchyard can be a haven for wildlife, and for people too. You can engage the whole community in loving and caring for the churchyard.Be the 'heartbeat' of a village community. Your church could affect positive change in village life. Leading a community audit could be an important place to start.Celebrate your heritage. The history of the church buildings presents an opportunity for churches to connect with new people of all ages and backgrounds.Cultivate fruitful festivals. Festivals across the year provide ideal opportunities to celebrate, be innovative and creative, and – in partnership with schools, businesses and local groups – to welcome others of every age group.Welcome more children. Engaging with younger people is a priority for the CofE nationally – and village settings can offer great opportunities for creative ministry with children. Projects formed in partnership, especially with local schools, are most likely to thrive.Reach the isolated and lonely. Village churches are in 'the perfect position' to make a positive impact on isolation and loneliness.Communicate effectively. Focused communication supports your parish vision and strategy and ensures that all your efforts have more chance of being effective.Comedian Hugh Dennis, whose father was a bishop of a largely rural diocese, wrote the foreword for the guide. He commended the strategy for identifying "simple ideas to involve people of all ages in building a welcoming, long lasting and thriving church community."Church House Publishing, who published the new guide, describe it as "Packed with practical advice and inspiring case studies to encourage and increase confidence in all who work or worship in a village church."All the book's contributors are active in supporting the growth of rural churches through their roles in the Church of England or through organisations such as the Arthur Rank Centre, the Churches Conservation Trust, and Caring for God's Acre.Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and the author of 'Responding to Post-truth.'
The ‘Bubble Church’ at Ascension in Balham, launched under lockdown in October 2020, takes its name from the socially distanced ‘bubbles’ in which parents and children gathered for the new church. The Sunday morning congregation now attracts around 80 parents and children every week for worship, prayer and Bible stories and a craft activity for the whole family.It has been so popular that the number of baptisms of babies and children at Ascension has tripled from an average of five, to 10 last year and 15 due to take place this year. The success of the church has also helped other areas of church life – the Sunday school at the church’s 10.30 service has grown with children who used to attend Bubble Church and a new mid-week group has been formed by ‘Bubble Church’ parents – the majority of whom were not previously churchgoers - to study the Bible and pray.Vicar Marcus Gibbs said: “There are lots of young families in Balham, most of whom have no connection with church, and Bubble Church was our experiment to see if we could connect with them."It uses a simple formula and allows everyone regardless of their knowledge of the Christian faith to join and learn together. We thank God for the success of Bubble Church and hope that we may see this successfully adopted in other churches."The Bubble church formula will now be expanded to five other churches in Southwark Diocese with help from a £250,000 Innovation Funding grant from the Church of England.
CHILDREN’s charities have called on the remaining candidates for the Conservative Party leadership and No. 10 to prioritise early-intervention social care for children. A report published on Tuesday reveals that funding has halved in the past decade.In the same period, 2010-11 to 2020-21, the number of children in local-authority care rose by almost one quarter.The charities — the Children’s Society, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, and the NSPCC — commissioned the report, Stopping the Spiral: Children and young people’s services spending 2010-11 to 2020-21, from Pro Bono Economics. “The care system is failing children and young people,” it concludes.And the situtation is worsening, it says: if current trends continue, 100,000 children will be in care by 2032, and this will almost double the financial burden on already overstretched local councils.The Children’s Society’s chief executive, Mark Russell, said: “Behind these shocking figures, which saw spending on services for young people fall by three-quarters (74 per cernt) from £1.3 billion to £300 million, are children who have missed out on vital early support, many of whom end up in care.”The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which issued its final report in May, called for a “radical reset” of the system, and the prioritising of earlier interventions.The Pro Bono Economics report, endorsing this view, cites research that has found that 80 per cent of local-authority spending is on late-intervention services, such as support for care leavers and fostering fees.Early-intervention services, however, seek to prevent problems or address them before they become fixed. Because such services are rarely a statutory requirement, they are likely to be cut first when budgets are tightened. Cuts to Sure Start centres are given as an example of this.While investment in early intervention shrank, local-authority spending on late-intervention services rose by 37 per cent between 2010-11 and 2020-21. The overall proportion spent on late intervention has, therefore, increased in ten years from 58 per cent in 2010-11 to 80 per cent.AdvertisementThe report also reveals regional disparities, in which the north and Midlands have suffered larger cuts in early-intervention services.Mr Russell described it as a “big concern that children in deprived areas, where needs may be greatest, are often among those least likely to get help before problems spiral out of control. If ministers are serious about Levelling Up, they must better target funding to the areas that need it most.”The coalition of charities is calling on the Government to invest a minimum of £2.6 billion in children’s social care: the figure set out in the Independent Review. Such funding needs to be targeted and ring-fenced to ensure that early-intervention services are rebuilt, the charities say.“Councils everywhere have struggled amid government funding cuts,” Mr Russell said, “and this is why we are calling on whoever becomes the next Prime Minister to ensure children’s-services teams across the country get the extra funding they desperately need — sooner, not later.”Questions about children’s social care have not, so far, played a prominent part in the debates between the candidates.
