APPENDIX 3
Memorandum from The Church of England
Archbishops' Council
The Community and Urban Affairs Committee of
the Board of Social Responsibility discusseed the consultation
document A Better Quality of Life at its June meeting.
The Committee welcomed the broad approach of
the strategy believing that faith communities has a major role
to play in providing an underlying value base to international,
national and local sustainability strategies. The committee wishes
to draw the following pieces of work to the attention of the Environmental
Audit committee:
— The Nation Estates Churches Network—connecting
and resourcing clergy and community workers on housing estates,
particularly on the outskirts of large cities. Concerned with
the sustainability of community life against a background of poor
housing conditions, social disadvantage and environmental decay.
Members have been involved with capacity building, community development,
health projects etc. developing church premises and congregations
as part of local sustainability strategies.
— Faith in an Urban World Project—embryonic
project initiated by Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops. Concerned
with the future of urban communities from a human and faith perspective,
drawing on examples of good practice from around the world with
an emphasis on resourcing churches in situations of rapid urbanization
through research, publication and training. (Chair the Bishop
of Barking.)
— The recent Methodist report The
Cities is an important piece of research concerned with the
whole life of cities and the role of faith communities within
them.
— The 1990 Trust and Community Development
Foundation's recent conference on "Environmental Action and
Sustainable Development in a Multi-cultural Society" raises
important issues about the future of community life and issues
of sustainability for groups who are often marginal to the process
through which sustainability strategies are developed. The conference
report is particularly important in the context of the current
concern about institutional racism. (CDF 60 Highbury Grove London
N5 2AG).
— the DETR's Inner Cities Religious
Council has had a working group on faith values in regeneration
drawing insights from the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Christian
communities, a similar reference group might provide an important
resource as sustainability strategies are developed by government.
— From a European perspective the European
Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society (now Church and Society
Commission of the Conference of European Churches) set up a working
group which produced a report as a contribution to the mid-term
evaluation of the fifth programme of the EU—Community Programme
of Policy and Action in Relation to Environment and Sustainable
Development. Entitled The Dominant Economic Model and Sustainable
Development: Are they Compatible?, the report looks at the
underlying theological and ethical principles for sustainable
development in the contexts of energy, transport and trade. (Available
from CEC, The Ecumenical Centre, 174 rue Joseph II, B1040 Brussels.
I trust these comments will be of some help
as the committee considers evidence put before it.
June 1999
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