CHURCH AT YOUR SERVICE?

I talked with all three authors of the Moral, But No Compass report on church and social welfare yesterday - at a reception hosted by PM Gordon Brown at No 10 Downing Street for Faithworks and the Christian Socialist Movement. (More on this event shortly). They were naturally looking forward to the public conversation turning from immediate, sometimes superficial reactions, to deeper issues. Though my own interventions so far have been far from uncritical, the researchers all seemed positive about them, which is heartening. Whatever you think of it (and I have decidedly mixed feelings) a lot of work has gone into this document.

My latest piece, Churches and public service, is on Wardman Wire (a predominantly but not exclusively right-of-centre website and group blog on politics, culture, technology and sport). Matt Wardman will also be hosting what he hopes will be a wide ranging conversation about the issues involved on the forum.

In addition the Exeter and Devon regional paper Express and Echo carried a short 'viewpoint' column by me yesterday, which they entitled Churches acting as arm of government very wrong. This followed on from a curious report in the same paper of a public meeting on faith and politics, with Exeter MP and health minister Ben Bradshaw and others, where I might have come across as an uncritical cheer-leader for collusion: Government 'is not betraying' Christians say religious leaders.

In fact I had carefully explained to the journalist (who wasn't actually able to stay for most of the meeting) that the Von Hugel Institute report, at that stage awaiting publication, was not "written by the Church of England". And while I emphasised that there was plenty of official and unofficial consultation with faith communities, even if data was sometimes thin, my main concern was that churches should not simply be absorbed into government agendas. Insofar as Christians are involved in receiving public funds, I added, they should act in a way that shows a clear Gospel-based commitment to fairness toward our neighbours (as a corporate outworking of love), rather than privilege for ourselves. This didn't get reported.

There are of course, a spectrum of collaborative possibilities (involving statutory, 'third sector', civil society and private bodies) existing between purely voluntary endeavour on the one hand, and charities or faith groups being hired as public service deliverers with taxpayers' money on the other. This is evident in my Wardman piece, but perhaps not so much in the Express and Echo one - aimed at a more popular audience.

The areas arising from all this that I want to examine further at this juncture are, first, the question about when it might be appropriate for churches to receive or use public money, and when not; second, the burden of Moral, But No Compass in terms of previous Anglican documents on church and society; third, the shifting position of the established Church in relation to the main political parties; and fourth, questions that need to be posed to the "commissioning state" model of welfare.

Meanwhile, Thinking Anglicans continues to provide a useful overview of commentary on the report. Of course I realise that FaithInSociety regulars may rather wish to read about other things, too!