Gweini survey report launched

At a lunchtime meeting in the Millennium Centre today, before an audience of church leaders AMs and government officials, with full media attendance, Gweini made public the findings of its two year research project.

The report estimates that the value of social capital contributed in voluntary public service by religious communities in Wales is £102 million, and in the Capital city, approx £10 million.

Gweini's findings can be found here

The Western Mail's digest of the report can be found here

THese findings provide an important context for the reporting of the Spiritual Capital survey.

Steering group fifth meeting

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The main survey questionnaire was reviewed at tonight's meeting, prior to production and distribution later this month. Raising the publicity profile of the survey is now a priority task.

The questionnaire can be found here.

Reports were received about collaboration with Gweini and CYTUN projects funded by FCCBF, their involvement in the conference planning and participation, also in publication of each other's research findings.

The Steering Group will be represented at a 'Best Practice consultation with Faith Groups' seminar organised for public service workers and local government officers in Bristol on 10th October.

Meeting minutes here

Meeting local Gweini

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Roy and Keith met with Jim Stewart, who works for Gweini nationally liaising with the Welsh Assembly Government, and Pastor Paul Hocking a colleague representing the Cardiff area branch of Gweini. It was mostly an occasion for briefing each other about the projects we are engaged in, and discovering how they complement each other. It seems possible that there are areas of mutual interest in which collaboration is not only necessary but possible, and we look forward to involving local Gweini members especially in the end-of-research conference.

Gweini on the case

Met with John Martin Evans today, working for the Evangelical Alliance's council for voluntary service in Wales (aka Gweini). He is researching the social contribution of Christian voluntary organisations across the Principality, under the heading 'Counting our Communities'.

His brief is similar to ours in that it seeks to assess the contribution of religious bodies (in the economic sense) to civil society, but it's much broader in covering all of Wales. He is about to put out a questionnaire to a thousand religious organisations in Wales (Christian and other faith). He's been preparing for a year, and also has FCCBF funding.

There may be ways in which we can collaborate at a later stage, as we are covering one of the denser areas of religious enterprise, roughly a quarter of the contact list for the whole of Wales.

It's interesting the impulse to ask questions about religious bodies and society is stimulating such a response amongst evangelical communities and the historic mainstream churches at the same time. It's a little disconcerting that CDF made no effort to guide these initiatives towards each other and challenge their advocates to work together.

But it's interesting to see how reluctant civil society is to challenge religious bodies to work at reconciling and harmonising their contribution the society. Meanwhile individual secularising campaigners to make their attempts to discredit religious communities and exclude their participation in public life. It's left to religious bodies to assert their own value to society, if not defend themselves from disinformation and downright abuse.