When Maurice Glasman came to St Mary’s Todmorden at the start of the summer, about 60 people from all walks of life came to hear him speak.
Lord Glasman is encouraging Christians, fellow faith communities and interested parties from the secular world to work better together for the flourishing of their local communities. Bob Beck, who was at the meeting, reports back on what he had to say:
‘The Church has always worked in the communities that it serves. In recent years, there has often been a change in the mood of many communities:
Less optimism for the future.
Less confidence in the future of the institutions that we rely on to provide for us.
Less of a sense of community and the relationships that make a community.
Lower public participation.
A memory that things were better in the past and a sense of nostalgia for a time that was a lot more simple.
Newspaper headlines too often reflect this notion of malaise.
‘Almost five million people in Britain have no close friends’.
‘Debt crisis leaves 2.4million households swamped by essential bills’.
‘Rate of young people buying homes falls to lowest level on record’. The stories put out about public life are often alienating. They imply a lack of responsibility and people standing up to be accountable.
Maurice Glasman spoke to an open meeting at St. Mary's Church in Todmorden at the end of June. The meeting was part of an ongoing conversation about how we can come together as communities for the Common Good to transform people's lives and the places that we live in and how the churches' role is central in this.
Lord Glasman described listening exercises run in recent years. When asked, people mention family, community, our landscape and the places that we come from as being most important to them. Top of the list of concerns included a sense of not being able to change things, notions of being disengaged and pessimistic when it should be normal to have pride in where we're from and a bullish sense of what's to come. People often called for dignity at work and a feeling of belonging rather than dispossession and loneliness.
Lord Glasman suggested our memories can inform the future.
Rather than reminding us of an idealised past, memory can inform us about what we need to work on. Old structures can deliver change. Maurice commented on the Mother's Union banner in St. Mary's as an example of something traditional, based around family but radical in the work it can do for change in the community.
He went on to explain: There is power that we understand held by the state and power that comes from owning resources. Concentrated in Westminster and the Square Mile, these kinds of power are often unresponsive and unaccountable. By building relationships together, we have power. With power we can better take action in the places we live and beyond.
Maurice led a discussion on community organising including converting credit unions into banks and the establishment of community land banks to provide quality, affordable housing through mutual companies.
There was a presentation about the Calderdale Credit Union which has reached the point at which it is issuing bonds, and also a discussion of developments in the local Food Bank, a church led project which operates from St Mary’s Church. (Photo right is of the Food Drop In's free Christmas meal)
By working together, we can develop respect for family and different faiths. We can work with a commitment to the common good and a sustainable public space that helps people lead meaningful confident lives.
The establishment of the Common Good Foundation will involve new community organised leadership programmes. These will strengthen a community's ability to just do it for itself. Be it good food for all, payday lenders replaced by responsible credit and community banking, or bringing people together to curb loneliness. Community activism can be an answer.
Maurice saw Todmorden as an excellent example of where local initiatives and community organisations, such as the Friday youth café, Food Drop in, Credit Union, Incredible Edible Todmorden to name just a few have encouraged the town to flourish and be a good place to live.
The Common Good Foundation is currently being set up. Once complete, community organising training will be available and the website (not yet on-line) address will be www.commongood.foundation.