How to serve your community’s needs without reinventing the wheel in every parish: that is the challenge posed by a new project to be launched by the Archbishop of York at this week’s General Synod.
The Most Revd Dr John Sentamu emphasised how the nation is facing a prolonged economic downturn which will hit many local communities very hard. Every community will be affected by the recession and the need to build up our social bonds has rarely been stronger.
The report from Professor Hilary Russell – and a new website – respond to Gavin Oldham’s Following Motion in the “Big Society” debate at Synod in November 2010. More than 45 projects and initiatives are covered in detail in the report and form the core of the website.
The Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod (GS1815) have committed themselves to three goals for the present quinquennium – one of them is to find new ways to serve the Common Good of all. The challenge is, “How can the experience developed in churches be shared throughout the church so that people thinking how to serve their community’s needs do not have to reinvent the wheel, parish by parish?”
“The Church of England will not forget the hardest pressed communities,” Dr Sentamu said. “We are present everywhere, and we will remain present. Our calling is to build community and neighbourliness with the whole people of the nation.”
More – including three parish profiles, at: