Faith at Work
mp3
This is a story you will not have heard. Outside of Wales it received very little coverage and didn’t make any headlines. The only reference to it in the national mainstream media was a tiny sidebar in The Times which read:
Faith 'worth £2bn'
Churches, mosques, synagogues and other faith communities contribute more than £2 billion to the economy, a report claims today. An audit in Wales of their contribution to public life shows that faith communities contribute £102 million a year to the Welsh economy which, if projected nationally, adds up to £2.1 billion.
Now £2 bn is a serious amount of money. You would think that such a report might have got at least some coverage, that the Today programme or Newsnight might have made some reference to it. After all, this report is not about the contribution of the church to itself, but to the wider (non-churchgoing) community. But no. None of these things happened.
The report was put together by a coalition of Christian groups spearheaded by Evangelical Alliance Wales. It explored the impact of all faith groups on the community, but given that 98% of these groups were Christian, the report’s findings are largely a reflection of the Christian contribution.
As well as the economic contribution already mentioned, it found that faith groups provided 80,000 hours of voluntary work each week that was of direct benefit to the wider community. If these figures are extrapolated up to the national scene that means we are providing at least 1.6 million hours of voluntary service every week to the UK. That is the equivalent of 40,000 full time workers provided by the church for free.
I believe this is something we need to be shouting about. In light of this report, it seems very short sighted for public commentators to ask – let alone answer in the negative – whether religion is good for society. Given these numbers, it is arguably the case that if it were not for the contribution of the Christian community civil society might break down completely.
Yet, as I’ve indicated, the mainstream media almost totally ignored this story. You probably hadn’t heard about it. Your friends won’t have heard about it. That is why it is up to each one of us to remind those we know just what being a Christian in public life actually means. It is not primarily concerned with irreverent adverts or defending our own rights, it is primarily about serving our communities to the tune of £2bn per annum, or 40,000 unpaid full time workers.
And when they suggest that our Christianity is fine as long as we keep it private, you might want to ask them if they really want that £2.1 bn taken out of the economy, and if they really want those 40,000 unpaid workers to just stop serving – because that is what a privatised Christianity would mean.
Justin Thacker, Head of Theology
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