By the Black Country Urban Industrial Mission
Summer 2005
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1. What are the key economic changes which have impacted upon the local urban communities?

2. How have churches, agencies and communities responded?

CASE STUDIES

• Community café in Coseley
• Brierley Hill
• Bilston

3. How can churches be encouraged to engage with signs of future trends?

1. What are the key economic changes which have impacted upon the local urban communities?

The Black Country, comprising of the three boroughs of Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell and the city of Woloverhampton, is seen by some as a dormitory of Birmingham but actually has a very different identity. It has been synonymous with manufacturing industry. However over the past thirty years there has been a general decline in manufacturing and a shift to industries whose primary focus is retail, service, distribution, scrap metal and waste management, but also to local government and healthcare. The old local economy of pubs, chip shops, forges and nail shops have gone. So too have the class divisions of working class and management and the "Gaffer" culture. As the Governor of the Bank of England has written;

"The Black Country of my childhood has changed. No longer do iron and steel works dominate the area causing "the ground to shake and the night sky to burn like the fires of hell"[1].

Manufacturing has been hit disproportionately, especially by the rise in sterling. Over the post-war period, the share of manufacturing in total output has fallen from over a third to around a fifth. Much of this decline is structural, the result of changes in demand and in the optimum location of business investment and activity around the world. It reflects the underlying shift in activity from the "old" to the "new" economies. The contraction of old industries is a consequence of the need for labour and capital to move into the expanding new industries. Although the output of the metal manufacturing and textile industries in the UK has fallen by around a third over the past thirty years, chemicals output has risen by some 140%. Even within engineering, traditional sectors such as metal manufacturing and machine tools have declined, and new sectors such as telecommunications have grown rapidly. Manufacturing has also been more volatile than the economy as a whole. Since the beginning of 1993, manufacturing output rose at an average rate of 1.5% a year, about half that of the wider economy. Manufacturing has grown, but only an annual average of 0.6%, compared with growth in the whole economy of 2.6%. The problem facing many manufacturers is that output prices and hence profit margins, are too low relative to the costs of their inputs.[2]

One response to this situation was the establishment of the Black Country Development Corporation in 1987[3],an urban development zonefor the purposes of regenerating the designated area. Dying manufacturing industries left a legacy of poisonous land and the majority of the BCDC money was spent in decontamination. The BCDC has now been superceded by the regional development agencies and the Black Country Consortium, which reports on how the Black Country stacks up in terms of the Regional Economic Strategy.

Many businesses are concentrated in the 'Wholesale, Retail, Hotels and Restaurants' sector. The local economic 'architecture' underlines traditional manufacturing, but also transport and distributive trades and exhibits weak performance on corporate and small business-driven knowledge-intensive sectors. According to the 2001 Census, 60% of the Black Country population live in 'communities where the great majority of people threaten to be left behind by the modern "Knowledge Economy". 'Knowledge workers' tend to live around the edges of the Black Country or outside all together, rather than within it.

The Black Country's Social Capital Score is 10% below the national average.[4] It is doing even worse by national standards than one would expect from its demographic and socio-economic profile.

The move from manufacturing to distribution services and logistics results in the need for less people. Young men particularly are vulnerable and there is an economic distortion as people don't fit the jobs available. School education is largely irrelevant as people need training and retraining. Women are used more frequently especially for shift work and low paid jobs, where they replace male labour. The labour rate in the UK is about £15-20 an hour compared to Malaysia's 10p-£1. Trades tariffs (i.e. Nissan) have also undermined the economy. Women are also more willing to take a wide range of jobs and are more adaptable. In parallel there has been an increase in the debt culture.

In the Black Country there is a level of community inertia with people tending to stay locally in a very small geographical area. Unemployment has been introduced into a sub-region that previously had no experience of unemployment and people have been devalued in the process. The demise of Rover recently despite diversifications in the supply chain due to the warning sounds five years ago, has had repercussions throughout the area coupled with the impact of redundancies in other industries including Index, Jaguar, Peugeot and Goodyear, all of which imp[acts on the sub-region. Communities are fostering pockets of a dependency culture with little energy or expectations and little pride in them.

Many of the communities in the Black Country are deprived by any external indices combined with some isolated minority ethnic groups the growth of the BNP and high teenage pregnancies. Criminal activity includes shootings and widespread trafficking in illegal drugs.

2. How have churches, agencies and communities responded?

In general the churches have responded to individuals rather than as organisations. There have been exceptions like the formation of Black Country Churches Engaged and the Faith seat on the Black Country Consortium. But overwhelmingly the churches did not think it was their business to get involved in peoples lives at work Where people have been made redundant people have been supportive in church communities but the days of the pit owner being in the pew have gone and the captains of industry and the decision makers have moved to nameless places out of access. But against this backdrop of negativity there are a plethora of positive responses from organisations like the Black Country Urban Industrial Mission, an ecumenical team that has been involved in journeying with workers through both manufacturing decline, and the growth of new industries like the those of the Pendeford Estate and Business Park, the Wolverhampton Science Park and the development of what is known as the Northern Corridor which includes Smiths Aerospace, Sun Valley Foods, and the South Staffordshire Council offices. Early in the planning of the Merry Hill retail park BCUIM approached the then owners to explore the possibility of a chaplaincy role, sustained by BCUIM and Worcester diocese. The establishment of Church Links Officers in each Black Country Borough, following the closure of the BCDc , to develop links between local agencies and the churches, particularly with a view to enabling funding, is another example of the BCUIM's earthed response. The BCUIM as part of the regional West Midlands Industrial Mission Association, has consistently counselled people being made redundant. Most recently this has been at the Longbridge helpdesk, at multitudes of industries in the supply chain and also with Index locally. Leaflets have been disturbed across the Black Country in response to redundancies.

The BCUIM through its team has also been present in Bilston as a response to the closure of local steel works, at Brierley Hill and the regeneration of the area and has been formative in the founding of the Faith Based Regeneration Unit in Wolverhampton, to draw money down to open up the churches for the community. More recently they appointed a regeneration officer to work across the Black Country.

There are good examples of churches using their premises for local initiatives and partnerships with local councillors, Tenants and Residents Association, Neighbourhood Management and Sure Start, police and local surgeries (eg. at East Park Wolverhampton and Brierley Hill Methodist churches). More ambitious projects have included a Carpenters Shop, which did up old furniture and helped to furnish peoples houses. (at St Mathews Walsall). A recent idea in Walsall is to use churches as conference centres.

Positive responses have come through local ecumenical initiatives and individual vision. In Kinver a rural village just outside Stourbridge, they formed a group called Community Action that aimed to represent the churches locally and took a number of local council seats. In Darlaston the vicar set up a project called Darlaston Redundancy Action Group, (DRAG) receiving grants from Church Urban Fund, the church and local authority. They have run training courses run from one of the churches, but are now in danger of extinction due to changes in government funding along with other local training initiatives (COMEX). They have to compete with training grants locally funded through Sure Start which are free. The local churches, mosques and Hindu temple are now putting together a new bid for a local community improvement plan. The churches in Darlaston and elsewhere are often seen as the honest broker enabling community cohesion.

A group of churches in Walsall of varying denominational allegiance ranging from Anglican to Assemblies of God bought a derelict pub in the centre of Walsall, which previously was known as a place of ill repute. Their aim is to make a profit from a Christian based café in order to run essential youth work in the area. The café attracts grants from statutory and charity bodies. They are planning to move to larger premises due to the success and expansion of their work. They currently employ over 30 people including a number of fulltime youth workers. They are open 6 days a week Monday to Saturday.

In Wolverhampton a group of local clergy opposed the closure of a successful local secondary school serving a minority ethnic population and by appealing to MPs, established a new Aided School with entrance qualifications of residence and faith (not only Christian).

Some of the newer churches have an explicit kingdom as well as church agenda. They have established housing charities (First Base in Walsall), community projects for young people (Primrose Hill in Netherton supported by Saltmine and Phase Trust in Halesowen), and general community engagement (Zion Christian Centre at Halesowen). Saltmine jointly run a number of ventures with Dudley Borough including a theatre, and drug awareness, anti-bullying and self-esteem programmes in secondary schools.

 

CASE STUDIES

Community café in  Coseley

A local Baptist minister took over a small church in 2002. It was old fashioned, with a congregation of 40 and 60 members, and traditional with a choir of old ladies and a set routine for services. Services became more laid back because "You don't push Black Country Folk". The crunch-time came 9 months ago. The minister told the church that you have to engage in the community to have a future. He visited key players in the local council (Dudley) and offered the use of the buildings. The council were interested and ran taster sessions in community arts for a week project. Very few came but the failure heralded a change of fortunes. The tutors decorated the room free of charge and the idea of the church being used for the community was sold to the majority of members. The church was given an initial grant of £5000 from B&Q to renovate the kitchen and to turn it into a community café. A few powerful members in the church resisted the plan. Some even resigned. But there was backing from the local community including local Homestart, the local MP, schools, and community education team. The general idea was to use the buildings to develop the community. Stourbridge College offered to run an Arts and Crafts Course and the church hosted Adult Learners week. Now the church plans to operate as a regeneration centre with Neighbourhood Management locally and the support of the police. The minister has spent 6 months just talking to people and believes that the church has a sustainable future because the buildings are socially acceptable. He has been inspired by the BCUIM team and vision of which he is a part.

Brierley Hill

In 1997 a draft Urban Development Programme highlighted the desire to create a new town in Brierley Hill. Subsequently the takeover of Merry Hill shopping centre by Chelsfield resulted in an application for expansion, which was opposed by government inspectors (as it was seen as an out of town development). The emphasis was then focussed onto a new town development of which one characteristic was to be "worship". The local Methodist minister with the backing of his local Churches Together Group and the local Anglican Bishop seized on this and wrote to Chelsfield and the local MBC to ask how "worship" was to be delivered? The reply was "That's your business" which gave the mandate for further ongoing discussions with both parties and the establishment of Churches Together in Brierley Hill as a structured response to the new town proposals. At the same time the local area committee was not hearing the real concerns of local people or the needs of the community so a vehicle was created in 2001 to be the voice of the community, launched by the Churches Together and the Bishop. This forum of local organisations worked closely with the local town centre manager and became the third partner in the amalgam that eventually in 2002 became the Brierley Hill Regeneration Partnership (BHRP). A great deal of the early work was about building credibility, sharing resources and networking. The churches have been the heartbeat of this forum and are represented on the directorate of the BHRP with the shared agenda of the physical regeneration of the town centre for the benefit of the local community. A paid team was constructed including the Methodist minister and Town Centre manager and the former leader of the Council. Money was forthcoming from various sources including a large amount of ERDF and local regional development agency money. An immediate focus for £30 million became a piece of contaminated land (called Daniels land!) by the canal side. After the recent takeover of Chelsfield by an Australian firm Westfield, the importance of a continuation strategy is paramount including the possibility of becoming an urban regeneration company. The BHRP are almost evangelical in their zeal many of the employees having given up safe jobs with pensions to follow a dream.

Bilston

St Leonard's Bilston probably illustrates a church that under successive influence of the BCUIM has under its present leadership team successfully turned a church around to adapt to both serve and empower the community. Originally a run down Anglican church in a once steel town it was like the community decaying and without pride. The congregation had undertaken a survey of 2000 homes to ask what people wanted from the community. This took 3 years to complete. They identified 2 needs, for services for young people and the elderly. The church now houses a social enterprise telephone link for the elderly and housebound employing 8 people, a print run for local businesses and community groups, a community café, regular concerts with the CBSO, the local regeneration team, training for young people to help them get jobs and is involved in Neighbourhood management. Money has been received from church funds, the local authority, SRB3&6, Lottery funds and ERDF. There is an ongoing building programme to turn the church into a community resource. The aim is for the church to fill needs in the community, to be a non-partisan and professional without losing the personal touch, like a family business. The management team include a professional development officer and a Hindu, and a befriending co-ordinator. Strong links and partnerships have been developed with Age Concern, CAB, the local PCT, Housing Associations, Social Services and Sure Start. The church is now gearing itself for application as a Social Enterprise under the governments Social Enterprise programme and is at the centre of the regeneration strategy for the whole area. Chris Thorpe the Team Rector writes:

"For a moment I was held by the conjunction of all this activity, in the breaking of the bread. The bread of the Eucharist, broken on the altar, the bread of hospitality broken in the café, the bread of regeneration broken in the meetings, the bread of communion in the developing friendships, the bread of communication in the hundreds of telephone calls to lonely elderly people. All of this was somehow held in the breaking of the bread." [5]

Inspired by Liberation theology in Hondurus he has adapted and grown a model that incorporates openness, provisionality with financial viability and a kenotic theology of service to the poor of self-emptying empowerment.

He writes of another Black Country example of a church's response to change;

"The Crossing at St Paul's in Walsall town centre is a powerful example of this redemptive process in the story of Black Country regeneration. This vast Victorian building was difficult to maintain, costly to run and impossible to fill! One possible option would have been for the congregation to withdraw, to sell up and find some more appropriate premises. They rejected this option and decided to stay. It was a costly decision because they would have to alter completely their building and their church life. The resulting transformation created three layers of activity; on the ground floor a modern, attractive shopping mall and church-run nursery provision; on the middle floor, a high quality café restaurant, run by the church and a number of offices let out to other organisations; on the top floor, the worship space and some conference facilities, again all produced to a high specification. &A redemptive process was started where the Crossing could become part of the regeneration of Walsall town centre as a whole. As the Crossing has thrived, so the confidence of the congregation has grown. Now they have to make decisions about how the surplus income might be spent, about other possible ways in which they could contribute to the regeneration of the town, how they might use their resources to help others to find life, life in all its fullness." [6]

3 . How can churches be encouraged to engage with signs of future trends?

 

In some of the older churches a theology under girded the work so that they saw the need to pray for the community and to hold for example civic services. For too long however the church has been invisible in the community and it has therefore vacated its place at the table where decisions are being made. Churches must accept that the world is changing but it has always been changing. Churches are not in touch with the world of work, of youth, of steel works, of drugs, the 24/7 world where Sunday is a working day like any other. In its dissociation from the community it has become an island of ignorance. Church leaders in contrast are obsessed with running the show, with services and numbers unaware that the world doesn't care about us and our self- importance. There is a lack of energy, time and vision, management, administration skills and the wider agenda. Issues that dominate church and synod meetings are passe (ie. homosexuality, and women bishops) Ministers themselves are not inspired so there is no real leadership. Worship is often self-centred. There is no vision, understanding, or humility. There is also little reference in mission material to anything other than numbers. There is virtually no reference to ecumenism. More seriously the churches have decided to go for growth strategies to theoretically produce bums on pews, with the result that the poor and vulnerable do not figure on their balance sheets. Financial pressures force the churches to have different agendas often dominated by a lack of money.

Does the church really believe that mission should be at the front of the agenda? If it does then it needs to take risks and not have 100 reasons why it wont work. Instead it needs to try things and maybe even fail, to give leadership and trust in God. At present the church looks like the front room of our grandparents rather than Kentucky Fried Chicken or the Tate Modern. Its communication is outmoded being mostly from the nineteenth century (a book) rather than the twenty-first (multimedia).

There are also denominational differences. During this period of 30 years the Methodist Church has never until now questioned its commitment to Industrial chaplaincy in the Black Country. URC and Baptist churches have more recently recognised that Industrial chaplaincy is frontline mission, but the squeeze on Anglican dioceses has resulted consistently in real and threatened job losses for those Anglican clergy involved locally in industrial mission. This has curbed creativity and initiative and mirrors redundancies in local industries.

Conclusion

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created in 1997 following the election of the Labour Party to office. Headed by John Prescott it encompasses regeneration of the environment, local government, housing and voluntary sector. There have been tensions between the voluntary sector and the Home Office, civil service and policy advisors. During this time faith and faith communities have moved up the agenda like a rocket. There have however also been tensions over the definition of faith, which is often read as inter-faith due to fears of religious proselytising. Financial support for this sustainable communities agenda however worthy is fragmented especially at a local level. The creation of organisations like faith networks, and nationally Faithworks has been an attempt to ensure that church and faith based organisations were represented and at the receiving end of any monies.

Money, sophistication and sharp minds are needed to respond to the challenges the chuches' face. Church budgets work under pressure and they have largely failed to capture the vision and while failing to understand the role they could play both absent themselves from the agenda and its resulting discussions and resources. They are withdrawing funding in areas where relationships need to be built between government and church agendas or the money is so disparately dispersed it has no overall effect. There has also been little money from ODPM to look at the role of FBO in relation to the New Deal for Communities. The churches need the vision, the theology and the structures to be able to respond to the future responsibly. Within existing structures this is nigh impossible. There is currently no breadth of vision or will to respond. The churches are largely in defence mode and support the status quo. Combined with reducing budgets and posts they are unable to respond to new challenges and changes. In this environment it is best not to rock the boat.

There is another way, another vision. It involves a change in clergy roles to become those who empower and envision others. It is;

• "A Gospel of hope.
• A belief that "change is possible".
• A commitment to inclusion and the breaking down of barriers between people
• A contribution as honest brokers in an often complex political world.
• Our ability to create social capital, to build trust, relationship and a sense of belonging.
• Our ability to celebrate and lament the highs and lows of community life." [7]

Radical restructuring is needed, with a clear vision backed by alternative theologies to challenge the current myopia of missiologies that restrict and stifle innovative responses to changing communities and government agendas. Efficient structures and management are demanded to build a viable, sustainable, intelligent church response that has integrity and respect from those it needs desperately to be in dialogue with, in order to create a creative and energising process of building sustainable communities. In order to do this the churches have to accept the death of the old church of empire and status, to grieve and move on, not to survival but to a new way of being.

Pat Nimmo BCUIM and others from the Black Country 26/07/05

 

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