We all recognise London as a city of rich diversity and faith and belief communities undeniably form a core pillar of this richness, that is not just an added extra but one of our most valuable assets. London is the most religious English city, with over 71% of Londoner’s identifying with a faith or belief according to the 2018 ONS National Population Survey. London is also home to the highest proportion of people identifying themselves as Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish and over 2,200 faith buildings. Including some of the most impressive in the country, from St Paul’s Cathedral to The Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden.
During this period, we’ve been working with London’s diverse faith and belief organisations to help them support London’s communities. We’ve also been engaging them to shape London’s priorities for recovery, Deputy Mayor Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard has been virtually meeting with faith and belief leaders on their organisation and communities experiences.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the importance of the role of faith communities across London as a core part of Civil Society. They’ve worked to ensure food is available to the vulnerable, supported those who have been bereaved, supported community members experiencing social isolation and much more. An organisation we’ve worked with shares reflections of this below.
Steve Miller is the Convener of London Boroughs Faiths Network, and he shares some of the recent work of his organisation and faith and belief communities across the city.
'No one knows how many faith and belief groups there are across London - thousands of groups of all kinds, tens of thousands of volunteers, serving the needs of hundreds of thousands of Londoners on a weekly basis. They come from all faiths and traditions and conducting all kinds of activities, among which prayer or worship services are just one.
Before COVID-19, faith & belief groups were always serving both their own members and the wider community. Year round they meet the needs of those on low-incomes, the lonely, isolated and those at risk, the old and the young, refugees and homeless people – both individuals and families.
Once COVID-19 hit, and most face-to-face activities were stopped, faith and belief communities responded in a variety of ways to continue to serve those people – with the slogan – “buildings closed – communities open” - and also reached out to those who are newly in need – those who were self-isolating, those who were bereaved but not able to mourn in conventional ways, those who never thought they would suffer from financial need, people under mental strain. Faith and belief groups kept up the support to people still sleeping rough, people with ‘no recourse to public funds’, children out of school and adults out of work.
London Boroughs Faiths Network (LBFN) has run regular briefing sessions for hundreds of groups every couple of weeks throughout this crisis. LBFN connects local community groups, not just faith and belief groups, with London regional governance (Greater London Authority and the London Resilience Forum), Borough Councils, Police, NHS and Public Health bodies, voluntary sector agencies – building relationships, information sharing, knowledge and reflecting back to these bodies the experiences of those at local level. We provided an early warning of the rising mental health issues, concerns in the social care sector, economic effects of COVID-19, domestic violence and vulnerabilities at home, issues affecting BAME communities, and more.
Looking to the future LBFN is moving on from this information sharing mode to action planning mode. LBFN is creating a series of round table groups to take on this task – faith and belief groups, community groups, statutory bodies and specialist agencies working together in collaboration:
- Poverty and economic divide
- Racism and BAME communities
- Children and Young People
- Personal support and care
- Spiritual and cultural renewal
- Volunteering and resourcing
We will also be rolling out our Community Resilience Training Course delivered locally which was put on hold when COVID-19 started and which we aim to re-start later this year.
We know that it will take months or years for communities to recover from this crisis, but we don’t want to just return to a ‘new normal’; we are committed to creating a ‘new better’ – communities which are stronger, more equal, less polarised. Out of this terrible time there is a once in a generation opportunity to transform our institutions for generations to come.'
To find out more on the work of the London Boroughs Faith Network please email Steve via [email protected].