News

Church Urban Fund invited clergy and community workers from areas affected by the August riots to take part in a two-day 'riots summit' this week.

The aim of the summit was to gather stories, first-hand accounts and opinions about the recent unrest and look at how the wider Church can engage with the underlying community issues, and respond in a practical ways to the many challenges presented.  One individual told us, "If I learnt anything from the riots, it’s that there wasn’t a universal picture, that things were very different in different places."

Many of the summit's 28 participants had been directly involved in positive action during the riots, either during the clean-up or by taking part in peace walks, street prayer, outreach and mediation.  One of the prime motivation of the summit was to tell these 'good news' stories, which have largely been buried in the media coverage surrounding the events.

A full report, drawing on the stories and issues expored during the summit, will be released shortly.

Have your say

The Church Urban Fund is here to help enable the Church to be more effective and sustainable in working with the poor, marginalised and vulnerable in our society - the disaffected.

Now is the time for us all to pull together and our ambition is for every church in every community to be actively involved in tackling poverty, by giving time, money, action and prayer.

Church Urban Fund is asking for views and comment from Christians and churches, which we will share with the national Church and polititians. Join our forum and have your say. Read more »

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, wrote the following piece for the Guardian ahead of Poverty Sunday on 26 June. The article was originally published on Friday 24 June.

In a time of economic downturn, it is vitally important that we do all that we can to support those in genuine economic need. We must be ready to stand alongside them. We need, together, to rediscover the springs of solidarity.

We have heard much talk of “the Big Society”, but if we want to transform our nation for the better in practical ways, then we have to start by valuing the contribution that every individual can make to our wider society. Read more »

Tim Bissett gave a presentation on 8 March 2011 during the Funding the Future conference in London.

Funding the Future is an annual national 'meet the funders' conference organised by Action Planning. Now in its ninth year, the conference gives trustees and fundraising staff from voluntary and community bodies a unique chance to meet representatives from trust, lottery and statutory organisations. 

Tim's presentation formed part of the Faith-Based Organisations strand, one of eight strands of seminars during the day. Tim's slides are available to download as a PDF.

Phillip Blond, the founder and director of the think-tank ResPublica, spoke about the role of the Church in the Big Society during a special Synod fringe event organised by Church Urban Fund.

In his presentation, thinker and theologian Phillip Blond made the case that state intervention - and market-driven approaches - have both failed in dealing with the causes and symptoms of poverty.

Read more »

We've produced a resource to help church projects see how they can be more environmentally friendly and reduce their carbon footprint.  For a downloadable pdf, CLICK HERE.

Contents:

1. Why is it important?                                      
2. General Tips                                                
3. Greening Your… …Office
4.                         …Community Building/Church
5.                         …Community Café
6. Green Project Ideas
7. Useful Organisations/Websites

  Read more »

Tim appeared on Andy Walton's breakfast show, discussing the news and talking about Church Urban Fund.

Listen to excepts from the show or go to Andy Walton's page on the Premier website for more information.

The Wild Goose cafe, part of Bristol's Crisis Centre Ministries, was one of three projects featured in the episode of Channel 4's Secret Millionaire screened on Monday 1 March at 9 pm.

Church Urban Fund has supported the cafe's development, and you can read about its work and the people it helps on our website.

Secret Millionaire follows wealthy philanthropists as they live undercover lives in deprived communities. Each programme follows them as the volunteer with various community-run projects and shows the issues that confront them as they adjust to life on a low income in environments that they never knew existed.

In last Monday's programme, multi-millionaire Dawn Gibbins visited Bristol and spent time at One25, an outreach project working with women involved in street sex work, Hartcliffe and Withywood Teenage Parents Project that mentors and supports young parents, and the Wild Goose cafe, which befriends and helps homeless people.

You can read more about the series and watch the episode on 4OD, Channel 4's watch-again service, where it will be available until the end of March.

Church should back new tax to fight poverty.

Church Urban Fund is calling on the Church to join them in their support for a tax on the banking sector that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change at home and abroad, as part of the Robin Hood Tax coalition.

The launch of the coalition comes in the wake of the US$1 trillion bailout of the UK banking sector which has created a huge budget deficit, jeopardising the government’s ability to uphold its commitment to fight poverty, protect public services and tackle climate change.

Read Church Urban Fund's full press release online.