Vol 3/5
June
1998

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June Profile
Happy 10th Birthday to the Church Urban Fund

In 1988 Southwark Diocese was asked to raise £700,000 for the Church Urban Fund.

After an incredible fundraising effort, which saw 80 year olds abseiling off church spires, thousands of fairs and jumble sales with enough white elephants to fill the Cathedral to its rafters and Bishops dressing up as Maria Von Trapp singing excerpts from The Sound Of Music the Diocese actually raised a staggering £753,000.

Nationally CUF raised and invested £22 million and they have now funded 1500 projects with grants totalling £29 million.But what's happened in the Diocese since the money was raised? In 1990 the Diocese employed Steph Blackwell as its Church Urban Fund/Urban Projects Adviser and part of her job was to help develop projects and access funds to support them from the Church Urban Fund and other sources.

CUF funds 56 youth initiatives in the Diocese

So far 226 grants have been received from CUF totalling over £2 million and the diocese has contributed a further million to CUF funded Anglican projects in Southwark. CUF has supported 179 new projects in Southwark and Steph has helped these projects bring in a further £8 million from other sources to support their work. In total these projects have brought in over £17 million to tackle poverty and to help poor and marginalised people in the Diocese.

Said Steph "After Faith in the City was published poverty became much worse. Thousands of people became homeless, the numbers of asylum seekers fleeing from torture, war and starvation rose, there was a huge increase in drug taking especially amongst the young and at the same time government and local authorities cut funding to the voluntary sector which meant the closure of youth clubs, pensioners clubs and other services".

CUF funds 24 homeless and refugee projects in Southwark

Churches of all denominations have played a crucial role in supporting some of the most marginalised and disempowered people in Southwark and the Church Urban Fund is helping them to make a real difference to the quality of peoples lives. The projects deserve nothing but praise and support for their work. They're doing a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances and I hope that people will continue to support them through prayer, finance and other resources.

Projects in Southwark range from a bathing scheme for elderly people - a vestry in a church in Charlton was converted to 2 bathrooms so that isolated pensioners unable to use their own baths for fear of falling and not being found could bathe in safety under the supervision of community nurse - to a drugs project to keep mothers, who have been through a detoxification programme, off drugs.

26 church buildings have been refurbished to provide better community facilities. 56 youth clubs, 13 evangelism projects, 24 projects for refugees and homeless people and 7 projects aimed specifically at crime prevention have also all been funded.

The projects have been set up by various denominations although the majority are Anglican, many of them working in partnership, and new ecumenical links have been formed whilst existing ones have been strengthened.

At the Hope in the City Diocesan conference put on by Steph to bring all the Southwark CUF funded groups together 8 denominations were represented including the Russian Orthodox church.

Bishop Roy, in his opening address, said how delighted he was to welcome such a rich diversity of cultures and experiences from so many Christian traditions all of whom were trying to work hard to alleviate poverty in the Diocese. He praised their work and confirmed Southwark's ongoing support for it. At the same conference the Archbishop of Canterbury stated "The leader of Southwark Council told me that the churches had taken on the role of suppliers of community glue.They helped to bring people together and were an element of relative stability against a background of considerable insecurity..."

We know from recent studies that Church Urban Fund projects stand up well to independent analysis and succeed in producing highly valued benefits owned by local people...

There is hope in the city because God is in the city and he never deserts his people.

Thank you to all those who helped to raise the money and to those who have continued to give. Without you none of this work would have been possible. If anyone would like a full list of projects in the diocese, would like to display the exhibition in their church, would like Steph to address their congregation or deanery or give any further information or details on any of the projects please contact her on 020-7939 9400.

Please continue to pray for the work of all these projects. Thank you.

Trevor MacDonald joined Bishop Roy, Bishop Peter & Steph Blackwell together with politicians and celebrities at the 1996 Diocesan Hope in the City Conference

The full printed edition of the 'Bridge' newspaper is available at all Southwark Parish Churches
Further copies can be obtained from wendy.s.robins@southwark.anglican.org
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