Archbishop tells government: Don’t impose solutions

The Archbishop of Canterbury warned against ‘top down solutions’ when he opened the country’s first joint government and Anglican-funded Children’s Centre in inner-city Birmingham at the weekend

The huge new Springfield Centre uniquely breaks several taboos at once. As the only Anglican, explicitly Christian Children’s Centre in Britain, it is built onto St Christopher’s Church in Sparkhill, but funded by £2million of Government money. It is part of the government’s national new ‘wrap-around’ provision, and is run by Christians and Muslims, supporting particularly Muslim women into work. The neighbourhood has an 82% Asian population.

The Archbishop said such community based initiatives ‘where people were not afraid to be themselves’ were the key to the future.

Using a word almost never heard in local government or politics he said: ‘Love is worthwhile even if it doesn’t seem at first to work. It’s got to be there.’

‘Government, are you listening? Supporting what’s growing out of local communities in this way is the way forward. You can’t impose top-down solutions.’

Birmingham City Council has adopted a hands-off policy with its Children’s Centres, of which there are now 67 in Birmingham. Head of the City’s Early Years programme, Lesley Adams, said in a speech during the special service to launch the building: ‘We decided not to impose a straitjacket on what they should look like. We were determined that each would grow from the community in which it was planted.’

Vicar Dr Toby Howarth said it was ‘a long story of the church’s involvement in the community, celebrating God’s love in our community.’

During the visit Dr Williams also opened the project’s new ‘Youth Encounter Centre’, funded by Scripture Union to train Christian youth workers in multi-faith issues.

It extends work carried on since 2000 with local Muslim and Christian teenagers, and pioneers an approach by Andrew Smith that encourages engagement but with clear guidelines on ‘how to talk about tricky subjects’.

The project works with girls and boys including some from the Jamaati Islamic Centre opposite which proclaims on a large sign above the door ‘al-Qur’an: The Last Testament’.

Its careful ‘no taboo subjects’ forum gave the Archbishop ‘tremendous hope’, he said, as it allowed people to be themselves without fear: ‘I have seen no youth work like this anywhere in the UK. I’d like to see it replicated. This kind of work makes it clear that the future is something we can look forward to with confidence.’

Mosque chairman Matloob Hussain, a taxi-driver, also spoke during the service, which was attended by hundreds of local people, some in hijab, as well as funders and City Council officials.

Hussain commended Dr Howarth, who has a PhD in Islam, for being ‘a good neighbour and a friend of mine’.

‘There’s no chance of harmony prevailing without good neighbourliness, indeed people try to move from such an area as this. Peace is the basic condition for development, so it’s not surprising the prophet emphasises the importance of good neighbourly relations.’

Head of Centre, Angie King, a veteran of the government Sure Start Programme, said a lot of people would deny that a church and mosque could work together.

‘We are the good news story. We are here and we are doing what people will tell you cannot be done.’