We are based in an area that is post-industrial, would have been working class. It’s starting to change a bit, but it is still considered to be an area that is relatively deprived. We’ve been here 10 years now and we have quite a few children, quite a few families, quite a few young people. Our youth group has almost trebled in size since the summer and that is exciting. We are going into lots of schools, doing lots of ministry and we’ve just started to run a course for people exploring faith. It’s the biggest course we’ve done in a long time, with over 20 people coming along regularly each week to discover the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Over a number of years the church has been concerned about what has been discussed in the church nationally and regarding LLF and PLF. We have been simply updating the PCC about what the developments have been and the steps that have been taken along that journey. A number of people have been very concerned, some people have left the church over that direction. And so, we felt that we wanted to take action to safeguard the integrity of the people who generously give towards our church. They give from what God has given them. And they want to be good stewards of that and how that affects our finances in terms of what we give towards the diocese to fund our ministry here and also perhaps potentially ministry elsewhere in this area.
The concern was there when we talked about what’s going on in the church, and we were looking at the ways in which we could express that concern. We talked about how the Ephesian Fund might be a way of doing that. But primarily we wanted to say to the congregation, we acknowledge what you might be feeling, the fears you might have, and we want to honour your consciences. You’ve given money, and we want to make sure that the money that we passed to the diocese isn’t funding something that we think God does not agree with. I think people have been reassured. Lots of people gave generously to a one-off gift day for the work of our church, knowing that any money given is given in a way that honours the gospel and what God says about marriage and sexuality and is consistent with that. So they could give with confidence, knowing that the money was going to what they believed in.
