Our Director Angus Ritchie, who’s been involved in the Living Wage campaign for 15 years, blogs about this week’s £5.1 billion Premier League TV deal…
Richard Scudamore is a comfortable man, as well he might be. I imagine the Chief Executive of the Premier League on a more-than-comfortable salary, and he has just had a very good week at the office. The League has secured £5.14 billion in broadcasting rights from British TV companies, with negotiations still ongoing about international rights.
Julia Webster, Network Co-ordinator for the Church Credit Champions Network in Liverpool blogs about the exciting expansion of our work bringing together churches and community finance providers…
I think that we are all aware, on a superficial level, that much ‘good work’ goes on in many churches across the country. But it is incredibly powerful to actually visit projects and speak with the many unsung heroes who truly put their faith into action on a daily basis. I have also found the willingness of others to share their experiences and to offer their help and commitment to the Church Credit Champions Network to be inspirational.
Tom Daggett, Co-ordinator of our community music programme SingSpire, blogs about a choir of marginalised people who made a wonderful sound…
Over four weeks in December, we worked with a remarkable set of men who came together as a choir and sang in Hinde Street Methodist Church for an audience drawn from across the West London Mission.
Since 1887, the West London Mission (WLM) has combined Christian worship with pioneering social work among some of the most marginalised members of society. The WLM works with Street homeless people, homeless ex-servicemen, men with alcohol dependency, men leaving prison, and those who need affordable counselling.
Our Communications Officer Andy Walton blogs about our work both before and in the aftermath of the Paris attacks…
It’s impossible to fully make sense of mass murder. Whatever reason is given, the sheer horror of the murder of 12 French people in their own capital city will always be tinged with the simple thought… why? As I mulled over the events in Paris with colleagues, our minds turned quickly back to an event we’d been part of exactly a week prior to the shootings.
Theo Shaw recently joined the CTC staff team to help expand our work linking up churches and Credit Unions. Here she tells the story of why she’s personally so passionate about making credit work for people…
On Monday 27th October 2014, I was proud to walk with members of the Copleston Centre Church in Peckham to deliver nearly 150 membership applications to the London Mutual Credit Union. It was amazing to see the local community so involved in actively promoting London Mutual, with people from both the congregation and local community taking part in the march.
The church has clearly set an excellent example by signing up its own members and others in the local community, which I hope will resonate throughout the Diocese of Southwark and beyond. My prayer is that other churches will be encouraged to also take active steps to address financial issues affecting their communities, as well as promoting ethical savings. It is only through this approach that we can collectively begin to create long lasting change, re-establish a saving culture that benefits all members of society, and ultimately create a financially just system that reflects God’s command to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Stephen Atkinson was one of our Jellicoe interns in the summer of 2014. Here, he blogs about one of the biggest questions of all…
Context: For the last few months, I have been investigating the social-economic-political issue of food waste. Many, many questions arise – why does food waste exist? what can we do about it? etc. etc. But one question stands out from the crowd…
I have been captivated by this one question recently. I have called it ‘the meta-question’, the question which encompasses most other questions. And it goes something like this: to what extent are we to hope for and expect a better world on its way, and to what extent are we to ‘grin and bear it’ and learn of God’s love within our suffering world? Put another way; to what extent is the gospel of Jesus a message of systemic societal change, and to what extent is it a message of perseverance and resilience in the face of suffering? And, of course, everyone knows the answer. It’s both. It’s both to the ‘social transformation’ camp, and it’s both to the ‘resilient heart’ camp. But both means quite different things in these two camps. It is really difficult not to endorse one answer over the other. And I am choosing, after a lot of thought, to endorse the latter, hard-nosed, ‘both’.
Revd Alexandra Lilley is Assistant Curate at St Paul’s, Shadwell – close by to our office in east London. Here she offers us a reflection on the waiting and anticipation at the heart of Advent…
Advent is a season in the church’s life when we deliberately turn our thoughts and attention to what it means to be a people-in-waiting. A waiting community.
We may imagine ourselves as the people of Israel, waiting for a Messiah to fulfill long-held promises; waiting for a Saviour to free them from the captivity of the Empire. But of course, it’s hard to hold that tension for long in our imagination, as we know the end of that story so well. There’s a stable and a manger waiting to be occupied with baby doll Jesus, in just a handful more of carefully counted down days.
Our good friend Captain Nick Coke from Salvation Army Stepney offers us his thoughts on Advent… and Pantomime!
Back in the hazy days of summer, our small church community decided to take on another activity for the Advent season. A community pantomime! As we lay under the summer sun in Stepney Green Park on our annual picnic it seemed a great idea. Yes, we would be busy – after all, we’d still do our carol services, nativity at Stepney City Farm, the Christmas lunch, fundraising with the brass band and various parties – but it would be worth it. (Oh yes it would!)
Two weeks ago, sitting in a meeting with Christian leaders I announced that our panto was approaching fast. Handing around leaflets for ‘Aladdin Trouble’ (see what we did there?) I added that all were welcome. It was then that I heard the words – ‘will there be any spiritual content?’ Looking back I suppose there were a thousand different responses I could have given. But in the moment, and slightly embarrassed by the setting, I failed to take it on. So here’s my chance to make a proper response.
Co-ordinator of our eastendspeaks programme, Caitlin Burbridge, writes about the build up to Christmas as a community organiser in Hackney…
Advent. It’s a time for waiting.
But what does waiting actually look like? What are we waiting for? It’s interesting to think that as the Shepherds were watching and waiting, they became expectant. When they were watching their sheep an angel showed up, and just as they were walking to Bethlehem to meet Jesus, they were expectant of something good (if perhaps a little terrified?). In waiting and watching we are open to discovering God in the lives of those around us.
It’s been a busy time for Hackney Citizens this last few months. We’ve been gathering in small clusters across the borough to train people in how to listen to one another, to listen to those in our congregations, and in our schools, and also to those who live in our neighbourhoods. I’ve been considering the significance of this.
Our Development Director, Tim Thorlby, blogs on Christmas, housing, and how you can help us change the world…
“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.” G.K. Chesterton
Christmas is traditionally a time of generosity. Even Scrooge eventually got the hang of it. As families and friends gather together to celebrate, we are encouraged to think of those who may not be so fortunate. Homelessness in particular resonates at Christmas. As GK Chesterton observed, this is not just because it’s hard to celebrate Christmas without a home, but because Jesus himself was born without one.
