Across our diocese, the cost of living crisis is not just a news story – in many homes, it is an everyday reality. The rise in prices affects all of us, but they are hurting the least well-off the most. As the poorest families spend a much greater proportion of their income on fuel, food and transport (which have seen the greatest price increases), they are experiencing higher inflation than the headline rate.
Unfortunately, the cost of living crisis will not pass by quickly. We are yet to see the rise in the energy price cap in October, and inflation is forecast to continue rising throughout 2022. This means what people’s salaries and benefit payments can buy them will fall further, and many more people will be facing the choice between eating and heating.
Our call to live out the Gospel in our everyday lives means that many of us want to help our neighbours in need by addressing issues from homelessness, deprivation, to financial inclusion and disability. We want to help churches to serve those who experience higher levels of deprivation as one of our priorities to support reconcilcing communities.
So what can churches do? Sadly, we do not have the resources to lift everyone out of poverty and we cannot fix the root causes which are causing spiralling prices. But, we cannot overlook our calling to care for the marginalised.
At the heart of a Christian response to increasing poverty is our belief that everyone is made in the image of God and so has intrinsic worth and dignity. Worshipping communities should be spaces where everyone can have a tangible sense of their value and preciousness to God.
So, the first question for churches wanting to respond to the cost of living crisis is:
Do people from disadvantaged or marginalised backgrounds feel safe and fully included in your community?
Are people able to honestly share the struggles they are having, whether related to the finances, relationships, work, or families?
And do they have opportunities to resist being defined by those difficulties?
In other words, do you discern for, recognise and encourage the gifts in everyone in your church, irrespective of their social status, education, age or health conditions?
Once you have a warm and welcoming environment for people to talk about their financial circumstances, you can get a better sense of what the cost of living crisis means to them, what sacrifices they are having to make, and what support they would most appreciate.
Listening well is the most important step to ensure people are treated with dignity at the same time as offered practical help. It might be, for example, that you discover someone is struggling to keep running their car, or that they are saddened most by not being able to take their children on holiday. You might identify a need for an affordable place to get a coffee and meet friends or for fresh vegetables because they are not included in food bank parcels.
Depending on what you find out, here are some suggestions for what loving service of the world during the cost of living crisis might look like:
- Running a childrens’ holiday club
- Fundraising to take children on a day out
- Hosting ‘pay what you can’ coffee mornings or lunch clubs
- Setting up a community fridge or food pantry. A recording is now available of the recent Zoom seminar sharing creative responses to food poverty in the diocese, including foodbanks, food pantries, cook& eat hubs, community fridges and more. The seminar, organised by the diocesan social responsibility panel, featured contributions from Simone Connolly (CEO of FareShare Midlands), Sian Rigby (County Council Food Poverty Officer), Katie Wray (Beaumont Leys foodbank), Elaine Smith (Together Leicester Development Worker) and Alison Adams (who holds the poverty brief on the SR Panel). For those interested in finding out more about possible options, please contact Elaine elaine.smith@togetherleicester.org.uk
- Consider setting up a social action project using the resources here.
- Signposting people to local courses, the job club and debt service run by Christians Against Poverty, or signing up to run one of the courses yourself
- Helping people to access the Green Living Leicestershire home energy grant, which aims to raise the energy efficiency of low energy performance home (for Leicestershire residents))
- Helping people to access local services and support via First Contact Plus (for Leicestershire residents)
- Helping people apply for the Household Support Fund (available for residents of Leicester City) or Household Support Fund | Leicestershire County Council for those in wider Leicestershire.
- Exploring the Community Support Grant from the City Council or community grants from the County Council Community grants : SHIRE Community Grant | Leicestershire County Council if they’re eligible.
- Inviting the City Council’s Warm Homes team to talk to parishioners who live inthe city about how they can prepare for winter
- Exploring the energy efficiency grants available for those who live in the county: Energy efficiency grants | Leicestershire County Council
- Carefully considering your Harvest celebration – if you usually partner with a school to collect food, speak to staff there to discern whether that would be appropriate. If it is, ask a local foodbank or charity what items they most need
- Hosting a swap for clothes, toys or books so people can get ‘new’ items without having to pay for them
- Fundraising for a local charity
- Offering your premises for affordable birthday parties or special occasions
- Praying for wisdom and compassion amongst policymakers and politicians so that they create policies which protect and support those most in need; for resources for charities and churches to provide practical help; and for the safety and wellbeing of those most affected by the cost of living crisis.
If you would like more information about responding to social issues like the cost of living crisis, then please contact Florence Gildea, Social Policy Advisor to Bishop Martyn on Florence.gildea@leicestercofe.org
And please feel free to contact our Financial Wellbeing Adviser Chris Sheldon on chris@sheldonhouse.co.uk who is always happy to offer support and signpost people to other sources of help.
Clergy are reminded that the Clergy Support Trust has a very easy application process for financial support.
Photocredit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya (Unsplash)