Rising Cost of Living: Help for Churches and Communities
Due to the rising cost of living, many families, communities and churches may find managing their finances more difficult – household energy prices are up over 50% for electricity and over 95% for gas, along with large rises in transport and food prices.
It’s estimated that 16.4 million people in the UK will be in fuel poverty during the winter, meaning many will have to look their local community and churches for support. Here are some resources for you, as well as stories from around our diocese to encourage and inspire your efforts to support those struggling.
Help for Worried Churches
For churches, too, the cost of living crisis is worrying. It is estimated that without any change in energy usage, churches in the energy basket will face a year-on-year increase in energy costs of around 180%, and other churches could see their energy costs triple.
To help with this, the National Church has made available £15 million to be shared proportionately between the dioceses – our allocation will be £242k and we are looking at how to distribute these grants to our parishes. Further information will follow soon. The below links may also be useful:
- The Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) is available to all voluntary and public sector organisations including churches: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers
- The Church of England have created a page about heating your church in winter here: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/heating-your-church-winter. This includes a useful PDF – Practical Suggestions to Help your Church Save Energy and Money
Further Resources for Reducing Energy Costs
- The Parish Buying – Net Zero 2030 includes solar panels, pew heaters, heat pumps and LED light bulbs, and members can have a subsidised Energy Audit which gives them £100 off the cost of an audit and typically offers around 25% reduction in energy costs
- The Energy Basket offers 100% green electricity Parish Buying – Energy Basket
- The Energy Footprint Tool allows all churches around the country to enter information from their utility bills and find out their carbon footprint (link still open to Parish Buying members)
- The Environment Programme offers a wide range of tools to help churches reduce their carbon footprint and energy bills
- Energy efficiency measures on the Church Care website
- These energy saving tips can be shared with parishes, put together by the Church Buildings Team
- Information from the Church Pensions Board on help with increases in everyday bills includes some aspects that may help clergy and lay workers
Resources for Helping Your Community
Churches around the diocese are already providing a great deal of practical, emotional, and spiritual support to those most affected, and many more are considering ways to support their communities during winter. Here are some examples from around the parishes, as well as links to further resources…
‘People at the economic margins are experts at understanding their poverty and should be listened to, because that expertise is vital in understanding how we can best end the injustice of poverty. Perhaps the most important and profoundly counter-cultural thing that churches can do in response to the cost of living crisis is to demonstrate day by day that people experiencing poverty have value.’
– Joint Public Issues Team of the BUGB, MC & URC churches
- If you plan to make your church available as a warm space over winter, register it The Warm Welcome Campaign https://www.warmwelcome.uk/, which is equipping and supporting thousands of free, warm, and welcoming spaces in communities across the UK
- If you are creating a warm hub, consider joining forces with a new initiative run by Hampshire County Council – the Chat About scheme aims to get people talking and improve mental health, encouraging local organisations and community groups to provide a welcome space in which people can gather to connect and chat
- Links to support/grants are available here: https://www.churchofengland.org/cost-of-living and through Christians Against Poverty (CAP): https://capuk.org/news-and-blog/how-to-find-support-in-the-cost-of-living-crisis
- A briefing from the Joint Public Issues Team of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church here https://jpit.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/202206-Cost-of-Living-Crisis-Briefing.pdf provides useful context to the crisis
A NOTE ABOUT SAFEGUARDING – If churches are opening their doors to more people in winter, especially those that might be more vulnerable, there will inevitably be more safeguarding concerns. We ask churches to perform the usual Risk Assessment to ensure everyone is kept safe. Please make sure all volunteers have up to date safeguarding training and if you have any questions or concerns at all please contact the Safeguarding team on 01962 737317 or safeguarding@winchester.anglican.org They are here to help you.
Examples of Schemes From Around the Diocese
All Saints Church, Odiham trialed a new initiative to open their doors to the wider community during winter. The church was open for free coffee and a warm space each Thursday for those wanting a chat, somewhere warm to work or to meet friends.
The Mission Priest, Matt Bianchi, who led the trial initiative said:
“We know how hard this winter is going to be for lots of people – if all we can do some days is keep the kettle on and share the warmth of the Church with our community then we hope it helps.”
All Saint’s Church in Maybush host a foodbank, the Marketplace, to anyone living within the postcodes of SO16 4 and SO16 9. The Marketplace is intended to create a non-threatening environment and to support people with budgeting, especially those who are older, have mental health problems or learning difficulties.
Their membership scheme (which costs £5 per week) allows people to collect 15 items from the Marketplace. It has between 20-25 visitors each week with food donated by fare share and SCM.
Food is the tip of the iceberg – we are also building a community where members feel able to open up to us about issues such as housing, education, mental health, and we can then signpost people to services and advocate for them where necessary.
Each rural church will stock a supply of donated basic items that can be accessed by those in most need, to be advertised locally.
“There will be people who we know and love who will be making choices that they have never had to make before: how much food can we afford? Should I miss a meal to save money? Should I ask for help from a food bank? As a group of rural churches we are determined that no meal should be missed by anyone in our community.”
– Assistant Curate, Rev Dr Rob Rees.
Dean Catherine from Winchester Cathedral speaks to clergy from St Luke’s in Bournemouth about the cost of living crisis.
Watch the full video here to see what clergy are saying about their concerns and plans for the winter:
https://www.facebook.com/winchestercathedral/videos/590640935864799
St Johns Hartley Wintney has started an After School Warm Hub on Monday evenings 3pm-6pm – these evenings include games, hot drinks, toasties, homework space, and comfy sofas. St John’s had already set up a community café every day 10am-12pm so this warm hub is an extension of this, to include families and children.