How church partnerships are transforming social action

a report by Sacha Hilhorst for DEMOS

Shelter for rough sleepers. Discussion groups for transgender teenagers. Coffee mornings to combat loneliness among the elderly. These are but some of the many social action projects happening in churches across the country. Over the past decade, we have seen a much-discussed uptick in church social action. Churches have also increasingly forged partnerships with non-Christian organisations in these projects. In our new report, Holy Alliances, we set out to understand how this partnership working is affecting churches and the work they do.

At half past ten in the morning, on a leafy street street in Cambridge, St Augustine’s opens it doors. It is time for the regular coffee morning, organised by the Residents’ Association and supported by the church to combat loneliness. Locals shuffle in for a cup of coffee and a slice of Victoria sponge cake. They chat animatedly with Reverend Janet and with each other. It’s one of the many projects for social good in the parish; another nearby church, St Giles, hosts rough sleepers in the church on cold nights in partnership with a charity. In part, these projects are about responding to acute need. Church leaders are amongst the first to notice social problems in the community, when members of the congregation confess to feeling lonely or when more and more discarded needles appear on church grounds. But the projects are equally driven by a community-minded conception of the faith. Reverend Janet is a good example. “The beautiful thing about the parish system,” she says, “is that it immediately imbues us with a community ethos.

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I have tried to find a copy of the report itself without success.

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