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UK News

New survey says social role of churches is invisible

by Tola Mbakwe

Ecclesiastical stated: "When presented with a list of services offered by churches around the country such as food banks, elderly support groups, parish nursing and dementia support, the research found that more than half (54 per cent) of those surveyed were unaware of the services their own local church provided."

The numbers jumped to 65 per cent in the over 55s and 83 per cent of 18 to 25 year olds.

Graham Nicholls, director of church partnership group, Affinity told Premier why this might be.

He said: "If people don't have a reason to connect with churches they're pretty much ignorant of what's going on and we as Christians need to do a better job of telling the story of what we're doing."

Nicholls, who is also a minister at Christ Church Haywards Heath in West Sussex, told Premier about the importance of local churches effectively reaching out to a community.

He said: "Society generally, particularly when it comes to evangelical Christianity, think that mostly we just sit around ranting about the things that we don't like in society and perhaps are completely unaware that we're also trying to live out our faith in the practical works that we're doing."

He added that congregations should be constantly inviting people to church events and not be afraid of the experience being awkward.

Nicholls said: "My experience is they come and think 'wow everyone looks normal, they dress normal , they speak normal, it's fairly informal, the music sounds reasonably good and the person at the front is explaining the Bible in a way that I can sort of understand even if I don't necessarily agree with it'. "

Michael Angell, church operations director at Ecclesiastical suggests it would be a shame for vulnerable people to miss out on vital support from the Church.

He wrote in a statement: "Particularly in areas where community resources have been stretched to the limit, the activities and services run by churches provide a lifeline to those in need, so it is important that we continue to champion the work our nation's churches continue to deliver locally on a national scale."

Nicholls told Premier what's worked for his church.

He said: "We're not just putting it in our church bulletins or putting it on our websites that people aren't looking at.

"But we're actually interacting with people at a local authority level and trying to encourage people in the church to talk about not just the message they're hearing... but also the work that the church is doing and why we're doing it."

Listen to Graham Nicholls speaking with Premier's Alex Williams here:

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