Cyflwynwyd yr ymateb hwn i'r Pwyllgor Cydraddoldeb a Chyfiawnder Cymdeithasol ar gyfer yr ymchwiliad i Gydlyniant Cymdeithasol

This response was submitted to the Equality and Social justice Committee on the inquiry into Social Cohesion

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Ymateb gan: Cytûn (Churches together in Wales)
Response from: Cytûn (Churches together in Wales)
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Cytûn brings together 16 Christian denominations in Wales, together with a number of independent congregations and Christian charities operating in Wales, to work on matters of mutual interest, including influencing Welsh Government and the Senedd. A full list of members can be found at: https://www.cytun.co.uk/en/who-we-are/

This submission has been compiled from information submitted by officers of member churches and organisations, readers of Cytûn’s Policy Bulletin and – especially – members of Cytûn’s Racial Justice Network.

The key issues which impact social cohesion in Wales and consider whether interventions need to target specific groups of people, geographical areas or particular key issues.

Christian churches have always placed great importance on the fostering of social cohesion, especially at a community level. The historic concept of a church serving all the people of a “parish” (now often known by other terms), whatever their beliefs, continues to be strong. It is still enshrined in law with regard to the Church in Wales’s duty to baptise, marry and bury parishioners – the latter currently being examined by the Law Commission’s review of burial and cremation law. Although not a legal requirement, other churches in membership of Cytûn feel a similar obligation towards all citizens of their local community.

This extends far beyond such life events to a desire to meet the educational, cultural and material needs of local people through a variety of activities, and making church premises available to other community groups for such purposes. A recent study of such activity, focussing on formal and informal health care with several examples drawn from Wales, is the National Churches Trusts’s House of Good: Health report. Nearly every congregation in Cytûn denominations host, co-host or collect for Foodbanks or local pantries, and many take part in the Warm Welcome initiative to provide warm spaces during the winter. Local churches report that users of these services include a wide diversity of people, often notably more diverse than the worshipping congregation which hosts the service. Evangelical Alliance is currently collating information about such activities across all faith traditions through its Faith in Wales survey.

An important aspect of community cohesion to which many churches contribute is that of bridging a gap between linguistic communities. While churches traditionally have often been seen as entirely Welsh- or English-speaking, demographic changes have meant that these linguistic communities co-exist in the same area. The provision of Welsh-medium activities for children and adults, hosting Cylchoedd Meithrin and Menter Iaith activities, and providing simultaneous translation or crib sheets for non-Welsh-speaking worshippers mean that Welsh language churches often play an important role in promoting linguistic social cohesion. Similarly, the hosting and working with churches who use languages other than English or Welsh is increasingly common – see below for examples.

Cytûn was part of the former Welsh Government Communities Resilience Group, and some local resilience fora have faith representation, but faith representation on such national bodies is sporadic, and we regret the lack of a national stakeholder group for the current Community Cohesion Strategy. We believe that it is important for all social cohesion interventions to take into account faith communities and the faith commitments of marginalised populations. For example, the 2021 census show higher levels of religious adherence amongst many ethnic minority populations than in the white population[1], suggesting that working through faith groups enables greater participation by minoritised groups. For people of all ethnic groups, religion often constitutes an important identity which public services need to take into account in planning services, especially those which are designed to promote cohesion between different groups.

Examples of best practice and other interventions/needed to support social cohesion and overcome tensions. This includes understanding the role the third sector plays in supporting social cohesion and what barriers it faces, including funding.
What support the Welsh Government provides to community groups and organisations and identify whether there are any opportunities to provide additional support. This includes examining the limitations and barriers which exist given some aspects of support for social cohesion are reserved to the UK Government (for example policing, media and internet regulation), and what action could be taken to overcome these challenges.

All religious groups are part of the third sector. As any large scale public funding for faith groups is generally limited to funding for the building, through Cadw (in the case of historic places of worship) or the Community Facilities Programme, while the activities taking place are funded entirely through voluntary giving or fundraising efforts by the faith community concerned. The vast majority of activities in places of worship are run by volunteers.

The lack of public funding, while it can be challenging, also gives to churches the freedom to innovate and meet perceived local needs without any requirement to meet externally determined criteria imposed by public funders. Some public funds are not available to “religious activities”, even when they are available to organisations which promote non-religious values and lifestyles. We are grateful to Welsh Government for narrowing the exclusion criteria for some third sector funds to “proselytism” rather than all religious activity, and we would encourage the Committee to recommend that faith organisations should be eligible to apply for all third sector funding schemes on the same basis as others.

Examples of churches promoting social cohesion in Wales are many and varied. We provide just a handful from within the membership of Cytûn.

· Churches in Clydach, Swansea Valley, have jointly established Tŷ Croeso, a community facility which offers a Foodbank, Warm Welcome centre, Repair Café, Welsh language conversation groups and a second hand shop called O Law i Law. As this work has expanded its service to the community, those running it report that it is notable, due to the bilingual ethos of the facility, that community members who speak other languages feel comfortable speaking their own language in the centre, rather than feeling they always need to turn to English. The presence in the community of refugees from various parts of the world has enabled links to be made with Muslim children’s work in Swansea, and mutual support across faiths, races, religions and languages is making a more cohesive community in Clydach.

· Community House, Maindee, Newport, was established originally by a Presbyterian Church of Wales congregation, who continue to lease the building from a multi-partner community trust. Community House hosts a vast array of work. For example, a Community Youth Project is currently funded by Gwent PCC and BBC Children in Need and is designed to engage with children and young people up to 25 years old in Maindee and wider Newport. They recently achieved the bronze Quality Mark for youth work in Wales. There is a Boys’ club, Girls’ club, Sport and Play, Youth Forum, Support-life time and drop in. There is also a music studio which can be booked. Currently there are 6 youth workers. Many of the young people are Eastern Europeans, mainly Roma, and they held a Human Rights event in December, after one of the team had been on a 10 days training course on Human Rights Education. This was after doing a lot of work on Human Rights and covering the two walls of a corridor with posters and ideas. The evening was buzzing with energy and it was lovely to see parents there enjoying dancing together.

Bundles providing necessary equipment, clothes etc for mothers with babies and toddlers and a new Lullaby project is run by Operasonic for mums and their babies. Another recently established group is ‘Tea and Talk’ for women to have open conversation, support and to share experiences. FoodCycle continues to supply a free 3 course meal weekly to whoever turns up.

Coffee’n’Laughs is a flourishing Interfaith Women’s group. 30 of the ladies, mostly Muslim, took a coach to the interfaith event at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen in July 2024, accompanied by 3 women from the Interfaith Council for Wales, at the invitation of North Wales Interfaith. The coach was paid for by Race Equality First.

At Christmas 2024 the Presbyterian congregation shared a Christingle service with the black-led Church of God, which has worshipped in Community House for about 20 years. This reflects a really warm relationship between the two congregations, despite very different worship styles and backgrounds.

Community House is vital to the promotion of social cohesion in Maindee, where – as the above examples show – faith is a key component of local life.

· The Trinity Centre, Newport Road, Cardiff is owned by the Methodist Church. When the former congregation decided they could no longer maintain the large historic building and dispersed, the Cardiff Methodist Circuit agreed to make the building available for other congregations seeking a home. These currently include an Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi fellowship on a Sunday evening – which also meets in Swansea and Neath – whose members re encouraged also to link with local churches worshipping in English; an Ethiopian Orthodox congregation; and a Mar Thoma (Indian) church.

The Centre plays an important role in work with refugees and asylum-seekers, providing English language classes, an art project, a birth partner project, coffee mornings, the Space4U drop-in centre, and a base for work by Student Action for Refugees and Displaced People in Action. There is a community kitchen garden and a Cocaine Anonymous group, both available to all local people. The Centre is a place where people of a multitude of languages, nationalities, ethnicities and beliefs mingle comfortably, and the Centre’s work builds social cohesion across the area.

Following extensive refurbishment, the Centre is re-opening to the public on March 22-23. In the mean time, other local churches have hosted the work so that it could continue. For example, many activities have been housed in the neighbouring Parkminster United Reformed Church, who arranged a joint carol service with the Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi congregation, and a Philippino congregation who have used Parkminster for some years, who sang a mixture of carols in various languages – including also English and Welsh. St German’s Church in Wales has also hosted worship and activities displaced by the refurbishment. This necessary disruption has been a means therefore to building additional community links and further helping social cohesion.

· Canton Uniting Church, Cardiff was formed by combining a Baptist Church and 2 United Reformed churches. Its congregation includes people with a background from countries including the USA; Holland; Japan; Hungary; Canada and Nigeria, some of whom aren ow in leadership positions in the church. The church say, “Our mission within this amazingly diverse congregation, teenage group and Junior Church, is to find ways of using the unique strengths and interests we have and use it for the good of cohesion within as well as outside the core membership.” As part of this goal, the church voted to permit the use of their premises for same-sex marriage ceremonies.

The neighbourhood around the church is very diverse in cultures, age, education and income levels. The church is currently looking to extend the existing garden into a larger community garden, with as much participation as we can encourage from the rainbow of possible user-groups. This new garden will be open to the neighbourhood to enjoy, by growing edible plants, and providing a quiet space to rest and relax. There is already a small garden by the side of the church and the church has earned an Eco Church bronze award, demonstrating its care and concern for the environment.

In addition to regular Sunday worship, the church provides a venue for community activities from community choirs; Concerts; groups run by the Council and the NHS; and a branch of the Alcoholics Anonymous meet on a daily basis. The teenage group and others promote the church’s understanding and involvement in contemporary issues, such as the environment, asylum and homelessness. The church says, “We are a church who welcomes and enjoys differences between our members and those who make use of our facilities. We believe that our continuing existence as a church partly depends on practising and promoting diversity, so that we can be ready for the Kingdom of God.”

· The ASK Centre in Rhyl was established by Christ Church (United Reformed & Presbyterian). It has five elements to its work:

o Advice offered through Citizen’s Advice Denbighshire

o Food for those in need, through a food bank and cafe

o Facilities that provide for a whole range of community groups and are very well used

o Worship through the life of the church community

o Community Cohesion by offering this altogether in one place.

The variety of people, from may different parts of a diverse community, who can be found within its walls when it is open, are a picture of building cohesion in a community noted for high levels of deprivation. The faith element of the offering is often sought out – the worship space is always open for quiet prayer – but is never forced on visitors or users.

· Dyma Ni, a joint project between Croeso Menaiand Bangor Quakers, supports asylum seekers and refugees in north Wales, and assists their resettlement. They have submitted separate evidence about their work to this Inquiry. That submission reflects the consistent support of Cytûn Member churches for the goal of seeing Wales become a Nation of Sanctuary, an idea campaigned for from the outset by faith groups in Wales, and which is key to promoting social cohesion when the topic of asylum is so publicly controversial.

The wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies partner in church projects such as these – and many others across Wales – illustrate how faith communities can provide buildings accessible to the community, convene a variety of different organisations and sub-communities to work together, offer a natural way to touch personal and spiritual as well as material needs, and offer a commitment to building social cohesion across all that they do.

We therefore urge the Committee to recommend that a refreshed Welsh Government Social Cohesion strategy and programme should explicitly include recognition of the faith dimension to social cohesion, and enable statutory support and (where desired) funding for faith-based social cohesion work.