That was the message from Bishop Rob Wickham, head of the Church Urban Fund (CUF), who joined a meeting of the Magnificat Parishes Group this week (Tuesday, 17 October).
Church Urban Fund was set up 35 years ago to support local, faith-based responses to urban poverty, but that scope has widened and it now seeks to equip churches and transform communities wherever there is need. In Bath and Wells we use the term Magnificat areas, recognising ministry that is ‘Lifting up the Least, the Lost and the Last.’ The Magnificat Areas Group is made up of leaders across the diocese who serve those parishes. They meet to share the joys and challenges of ministering in these areas, learn from one another and contribute that learning to wider diocesan thinking.
As new head of CUF, Bishop Rob is spending much of his first six months but getting out and about in dioceses across the country, particularly those who are part of the fund’s Together Network, of which Bath and Wells is an associate member. Bishop Rob had a comprehensive introduction to Bath and Wells, attending the Quantock Deanery Bishop’s visit on the 16 October, before spending the morning of the 17 October with the Magnificat Group and Bishop Michael.
Bishop Rob said, “It was a fun and upbeat morning with a good group of people who are really passionate about the places they are in. I have to praise Bath and Wells for creating Magnificat parishes, it is an unusual and a courageous act. It demonstrates that these parishes are important enough to give it a name. Naming it is important, it gives you something to work with, for example, it clearly identified them as a group of people that I could meet with and discuss matters that we all care about.”
The group were similarly positive about Bishop Rob’s session, calling it “inspiring” and praising his understanding of ministering in their particular contexts saying, “he just gets it!”
Bishop Rob says, “There is a sense of doing things slightly differently in these communities and we recognise that the people who know how to tackle this poverty are the people who are in them. It is not a top-down approach, it is about opening up, about asset-based ministry, realising what you already have and how to reimagine how people may flourish in those contexts. It’s about realising their value and what it means to have this community which is clearly in God’s image.”
He adds, “We must remember are all in this together. We want Magnificat area to flourish and if they flourish then we all flourish. We come from God’s exuberance and generosity and not from a position of scarcity. As part of the ecclesiastical economy, Magnificat parishes have an awful lot to offer, they are a gift to the wider diocese.”
Find out more about the work of the Church Urban Fund.
Photo credit: Craig Philbrick, St Paul's, Weston-super-Mare