This is a story about two little girls – Sophie and Jessica. Both of them are full of potential for joy, creativity, compassion, energy and wonderful relationships with those around them. Their Father knows this because He created each of them to be like Him. He gave them the ability to hope, to dream and to imagine the futures they would create for themselves. Then, He put both of them on the Wirral peninsula with abundant good things for them to share and many people who know and love their Father. However, from even before they were born, their lives were heading in totally different directions…

…Their Father knows about their different journeys better than anyone else. He knows the sadness and the bitterness that grew in Sophie as her dreams were sometimes crushed. His heart is broken when he sees how Sophie has struggled with illness and depression, and He bursts with pride at her successes. He’s overjoyed to see Jessica fulfilling her potential, and is angry at the injustice that means that Sophie is never given the same opportunities. He knew that they both had so much to contribute to their local community, but also that their community is so divided that their experiences within it would be very different. This is not fair, and their Father is angry. He is asking those who hear Him today to do something to stop this injustice. As Christians and churches who want to hear His voice, do we feel His anger…?

The aim of Life Expectancy Wirral is to enable Christian communities to respond to the issues surrounding the unacceptable differences in life expectancy on the Wirral, through action and prayer. The programme began early in 2009 and much has been achieved since then. We have now identified several aims for the future and have begun working towards these.

However, along the way, we have been challenged by the task of considering the language we use and the attitudes we hold when thinking about people who are experiencing poverty. Feedback from various participants who have taken part in evaluations of the programme include comments about not just referring to financial poverty, the inappropriate use of judgement statements and the use of patronising language.

This document is our attempt at addressing these issues and we hope that by working through it you will have a better understanding of appropriate language and also be challenged to think about your own attitudes to those on the Wirral who are classed as living in poverty. Much of the information has been taken from ‘Reporting Poverty in the UK’, a publication jointly funded by the Media Trust, the Society of Editors and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Tackling stereotypes and prejudice

One of the phrases often used when referring to people experiencing poverty is that they are “a drain on society‟. The phrase “hard-working majority‟ is sometimes used in place of society.

The creation of poverty stereotypes partly stems from the old attitude of “the deserving and undeserving poor‟ and partly from myths that have built up over many years. If the former is true, it would mean that some people choose to live in poverty – a concept that is hard to believe. In terms of myths it‟s probably fair to say that most people would guess that the poorest groups are unemployed single parent families. In fact half of all children living in poverty live in a household where someone is in work and 57% of children in poverty live in a family headed by a couple.

It is true that some people do not take up paid work and live on benefits instead, but this may be for any number of reasons, such as lack of confidence, the nature and pay of the jobs, the reliability of benefits versus paid work, lack of available child care, travelling difficulties and so on. Negative stereotypes ignore these facts and label people in poverty as “scroungers‟ or “lazy‟.

It is easy to be dismissive about some of the problems faced by people experiencing poverty in the UK today, yet the skills needed to balance a budget on an inadequate income – when there are no spare resources to cope with unexpected emergencies, such as household repairs, particularly without the benefits of credit cards or a bank account – are rarely considered. Frequently, reports suggest that families in poverty are bad at budgeting. The evidence suggests the opposite is true – they have to be particularly good at budgeting simply to survive.

A Group Activity: Try one or more of the following exercises in your group and discuss your answers with others in your group.

Budgeting

Work out a budget for a single person on social welfare payment. Compare and discuss your individual notes to make the figures as realistic as possible. How will you make up a possible shortfall?

Case study: Coping on a low income – Denise’s story

The following story taken from “Women’s and children’s poverty: making the links” (Women’s Budget Group, 2005) may seem extreme, but it is just one true example of the daily complications and humiliations that people in poverty face today. Some of the terms on tax credits and benefits are, technically, not correct. Benefits, tax credits and payment methods change, but the underlying issue remains the same – how difficult it can be to cope.

Denise is a single parent with two children. She‟s not a lazy woman – she works 16 hours a week, and her Working Family Tax Credit is paid by BACS directly into her bank account.

Denise got up one Monday morning and both of her children needed some money to go to school, but Denise didn‟t have any money. She has her benefit paid directly into her bank account, in which she had three pounds. There isn‟t a cash point machine near to her home, and even if there was one, it may actually cost her £2 something, to actually access that £3 in the first place. That‟s if she was allowed to take £3 from a cash point, because, as we all know, in many machines you can‟t get less than £20 out, never mind £10. There‟s often a ceiling on bank accounts as well, and if you don‟t leave a minimum amount in that bank account – possibly £5, £10 – they actually close the account.

So there we have this mum, with her two children needing to go to school – they need some money, and she‟s got £3, but she can‟t get at it. She doesn‟t have the bus fare to go and fetch it. So she rings her mum, who is a pensioner, and lives 12 miles and 2 buses away and says – can you help me mum? Can you get over here, and lend me a pound to get into Birmingham so I can get my £3 out of the bank? – because she has to go directly to the bank and get in a queue. The mum scrapes around and finds the pound, and she takes the 12 mile journey – the kids are still waiting to go to school remember – she gets over there (which cost her £1), and she gives Denise £1 to take the bus to the bank. Denise gets to the bank and takes out her money. To do this, she suffers humiliation knowing that she either would not be able to withdraw her £3 because of the possible minimum ceiling to keep her account open. Instead, she is able to withdraw it, but still suffers the humiliation of the teller knowing she only has £3 in her account. She uses £1 to get home, gives her mother £1 for the bus and gives her children £1 for food at school.

• What is your initial reaction on reading the story?
• What choices do you think Denise has to improve her situation?
• How could we as Christians work together to provide support to families such as Denise‟s?
• Re-tell the story to your group or to another individual. Think about the language you use as you describe Denise‟s experience/situation.

3. Attitudes

• Think about a time when you formed a negative opinion of someone.
• What was it about the person that gave you your opinion?
• What annoyed/frustrated/upset you about them or what they were doing?
• Was your opinion based on what they looked like or how they spoke?
• Did your opinion change when (if) you got to know the person?

Don’t allow myths and assumptions to colour your view of those living in poverty. Get to know people as individuals and develop relationships with them if possible. Check your facts.

Language

“In Northern Ireland, journalists don’t use words such as “scroungers‟, or “dossers‟ or other insulting or degrading terms, mainly because they are aware of living in a community and people know one another. I think this is something that appears more in the nationals, where the journalists will rarely if ever meet the people they are describing.” Gerry Millar, Daily Mirror

Language is always evolving and changing. In the last 30 years or so, a lot of different words have come into our vocabulary to describe people and groups of people. We are now more aware that general, often careless ways of describing and grouping people can be demeaning and offensive. They can also be simply inaccurate. The changes started with tackling issues of sexism and racism in language and attitudes. Poverty as an issue clearly is not directly comparable with these but it does have parallels in that it is about disadvantage experienced by certain people. It is a subject where there are many „disapproving‟ words in common use which stigmatise people. Here are some examples:

• One common phrase used is “the poor‟, although people who are poor are not a generic group, in the same way that disabled people are not. It is better to say “people experiencing poverty‟.
•  ”Impoverished‟ and “poverty-stricken‟ were highlighted as stigmatising by participants at the seminars held across the UK during preparation for „Reporting poverty in the UK‟ guide. Use „people on a low income‟ instead.
• “Handouts‟ is often used critically and may well be regarded as offensive.
• Benefits and tax credits are entitlements, and many people receiving them will have contributed through tax and National Insurance payments when they have been in work. Use “people receiving/in receipt of benefits‟ instead.

A Group Activity: Think carefully about the words you use when referring to people living in poverty. Discuss the above words or phrases in your group. Do you agree with the comments made about them?

What other words/phrases would you list as stereotyping people who are living in poverty?

Nature of poverty

To better understand poverty, it may be useful to look at some definitions. The Child Poverty Action Group definition of poverty is that “poverty is relative…it is not having a standard of living that is typical in a given society at a given time. It is not just about basic survival but the ability to participate in society‟. There are many variations of poverty that deny individuals the ability to participate in society:

Financial One Government definition of poverty is that of relative poverty. This is living in a household with an income of less than 60% of the median income – where the median is the level of income after direct taxes and benefits, adjusted for household size, so that half the population is above the level and half below it. This captures the extent to which the incomes of the poorest families are keeping pace with the rising incomes of the population. This is what is usually referred to as the “poverty line‟

• Educational Not having the education and acquired skills (reading, writing, computing) necessary to deal with daily life.
• Physical Lacking physical health and mobility.
• Social Lacking friends, family and resources to act as support systems. Not knowing the unspoken cues and habits of a group

Looking at the above definitions, we can see that poverty is often characterised as a combination of material deprivation and powerlessness.

However, a recently developed response to poverty is the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (see www.church-poverty.org.uk/livelihoods). This is a framework to understand the assets that people experiencing poverty have i.e. human, social, physical, financial and public assets – and how they cope. It suggests a different approach to helping people overcome poverty – encouraging them to identify and utilise the resources they do have at their disposal, rather than focus on those they don’t.

Church Action on Poverty has pioneered the use of this approach in the UK with Oxfam. This can lead to a celebration of how people experiencing poverty survive on so little, as an antidote to the prevailing myths in much of the national media.

Remember that living in poverty is not just about surviving on small amounts of money; it is about a generally poor quality of life. Hopefully this document has been useful to work through but we do not expect you to get everything right from now on! Understanding people and situations is an evolving process and the more time we spend with people living in poverty and thinking about issues around poverty, the clearer our understanding will become.

A Group Activity: Discuss the above definitions in your group. What do you think about them? Do you agree with them? Can you think of anymore?

Appendix 1 – Additional information for the budgeting exercise

• A single person aged over 25 who is receiving income based support would be entitled to the following benefits each week:
• Job Seekers Allowance £65.45 (assuming they have no savings or pension)
• Housing benefit £90.90
• They would also have their Council Tax paid for them and be entitled to free eye tests and prescription

Family life, in some shape or form is a reality for all of us. It is part of what it means to be human, to grow up in an environment with other human beings and to remain in some form of relationship with that family throughout adulthood. This is how God made us, so we should not be surprised that God’s Word has much to say to us about families and how they operate. Families exist in the earliest Biblical narratives, and interestingly we can note that one of the first impacts of the fall is a breakdown in family relationships. Genesis 4:1-9 records the story of Cain jealously killing his brother Abel. It is easy to depict Biblical characters in something of an idealised form, but those early Genesis narratives continue to reveal to us families who struggled with many of the realities that confront us today. Abraham and Sarah wrestle with the anguish of childlessness, eventually resorting to a human solution that undermines their  marriage relationship and causes Sarah emotional pain (see Genesis 16:1-6). The succeeding generations also reflect the stresses and strains of family life – Jacob and Esau, Abraham’s twin grandsons live their lives in constant rivalry and distrust, and it is only in later life that they are eventually reconciled; (Genesis 33) their parents displayed clear favouritism (Genesis 25:27-28) and their uncle deceived one of them into marrying the wrong daughter. (Genesis 29:25ff). Jacob’s family appears to continue in a similar vein – the story of Joseph is wracked with family rivalry, deception and betrayal. Family life is certainly far from straightforward!!

Yet for all of these struggles, God does not give up on families or this family in particular. It is easy to allow ourselves to imagine that if our family situation is less than ideal, then we are somehow beyond God’s love and providence, but nothing could be further from the truth. For all the problems that exist, these are stories of reconciliation, and God in His grace making good of difficult circumstances. We have already noted how Esau and Jacob are eventually reconciled – the same is true of Joseph and his family, who God eventually brings together in the safe haven of Egypt during a significant famine. (see Genesis 45&46) These stories present today’s church with significant challenges. To what degree have we structured our activities and expectations around idealised images and expectations of family life? Do those whose family background might not meet with popular expectation feel a sense of welcome and belonging within the community of God’s people? Are we encouraged to believe that God can accept and use all family circumstances for greater good, just as he did in the case of Joseph and his brothers.

As this early family becomes a nation, family bonds remain as the key building block of society. This provides not simply a social structure but an organisational one. In Exodus 2, the principle of identifying people by their “house” is already evident through the way Moses’ father is introduced, and as the people become a nation, their tribal groups are represented in worship (see Exodus 28:21); and their eventual places in the promised land, are assigned on the basis of these same groups (see Numbers 33 onwards). It is during this period, that the importance of helping children to understand and embrace positive values also begins to emerge, the book of Deuteronomy, which outlines the key principles of a fair and just society invites the people to “impress these laws on your children” (Deut 4:9).

There are many in today’s society who equate social disintegration with the demise of family life in the UK. This is a concept to be approached with caution. It is certainly true that families and clans were crucial to the infrastructure of Old Testament society, but we have already seen that there was no single model of family life that prevailed, and many of those families would be described in today’s language as dysfunctional. Families today are different, and in seeking to encourage people to pursue and develop, wholesome family life, God’s people are not called to impose one particular view or to be judgemental of situations and circumstances that might be less familiar to them.

God uses the image of family to help us understand His identity and His relationship with us. The relationship between the Father and Son in the Trinity speaks deeply to us about the nature of God. The people of God, both in the Old and New Testaments are described in terms of being God’s bride. It has often been noted that when people have poor experiences of these aspects in their family life, it can result in a negative picture of God emerging. We use these terms sensitively, but rather than avoiding them, need to help one another see them re-defining and transformed by God’s love and grace.

Children and their families have a special place in the heart of Jesus, as revealed through his attitude in the Gospels. Perhaps one of the most celebrated stories is that of the mothers who brought their children to Jesus for His blessing.  (see Luke 18:15 onwards). The instinct of the disciples is to send them away, but Jesus not only refutes this, but goes on to show how central children are to His understanding of God’s Kingdom. Children are to be the example to those who would seek to enter into the Kingdom of God; we have a responsibility to help them grow and embrace positive values, but we also have something to learn from them. Jesus saves his harshest words for those who would lead “little-ones” astray, which Matthew particularly equates with his attitude to children (see Matt 18:6).

Yet the Luke passage also records Jesus as saying some rather unusual things about family life, arguing that we must be prepared to “despise” our mothers and brothers in order to follow Him. At first sight these are difficult ideas, but it perhaps begins to make sense when we connect it with the words of St Paul in his letter to the Philippians. Here Paul speaks at some length about his family heritage and pedigree, yet announces that he considers these things to be of no worth compared to knowing Jesus. This introduces us to another key theme of family life, which is that it serves as a metaphor for relationships and identity within the Christian community. The church is often described in terms of a family, and many commentators have detected a parallel between Jesus’ appointing of 12 disciples and the 12 brothers who gave their names to the tribes of Israel. We are called to be a family, offering love and support that parallels what some have experienced within their own household, and for others, provides what they have not experienced elsewhere.

When Paul writes to the Ephesian Christians, he explicitly makes the point which permeates the whole New Testament, that our identity as God’s people needs to impact and reflect the way we approach family life. Our behaviour as children, parents, wives and husbands is to reflect Christ’s love and grace (Ephesians 6)

God’s evident concern for wholesome family life, needs to be reflected in the actions and priorities of His people. Bringing healing and support to families is at the heart of the Gospel – the final words of the Old Testament which anticipate their fulfilment in the New, offer a promise that when God’s Messiah comes, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4:6).

A Prayer for family life

Loving God, you made us not to exist as individuals but as part of a community, finding protection and fulfilment in caring and  being cared for by one another – enriching our humanity through what we give and receive from those with whom we share our lives.

Help us not to take for granted those who care for us, and when that care is not all that we might desire, may we never forget that you are a Father of infinite love and compassion. Help us, whatever shape or form might be displayed by what for us is family, to allow your love to inspire and strengthen us in giving and receiving the love that we need to know and share. And so may we be enriched by the knowledge that we are children of the One to whom all the families of earth owe their existence. AMEN

Church and families

Gracious God, forgive us if in speaking of families and family life we have imposed expectations and understandings that are of our own making, rather than those which reflect the values of Your heart. Forgive us too, if in the stresses and challenges of family life, we have failed to celebrate and give thanks as we should. Help us to be a family to those who have no other, and to so engage in our shared life, that every expression of family finds affirmation and welcome within our midst. Help us to do what we can to make family life more of what You intended, and by Your Spirit’s healing presence strengthen and renew the bonds that exist between us.

Through Christ our friend and brother  – AMEN

Family life

Family life is not always easy Lord;

those who once cared for me are now my dependants.

Sometimes my hopes for those closest to me are shattered,

and sometimes I am disappointed with myself in how I respond to them.

It can be joyful, but also stressful; demanding, yet also fulfilling

sometimes it is easier to see the sacrifices I make for my family,

Rather than what they have given to me.

Sometimes I find it more comforting to harbour my disappointments of family life

Than to seek your healing.

Yet as I turn to you, I recognise that you are no stranger to family life.

Born in the midst of questions, fear and disappointment;

hearing the sound of chiding parents when your youthful words had captivated so many in the temple. Embracing a mission in adulthood which left you rejected and misunderstood by them

Calling with your dying breath for someone else to care for your grieving mother.

And yet even this is eclipsed by the pain of an infinite Father

Grieving the sacrifice of His only begotten Son

The pain and scars of our family lives

Cutting deep into the very essence of our creator

So God help me to trust you with my family. Help me reflect your likeness into the life of my family—whatever that might mean for me, and so may you love infuse all those that I call mine.

AMEN

It was powerful and so TFH made the decision to do the same in 2010; a decision that we are very much in support of. You can find out more by visiting the TFH website or by going to the Continuous Prayer Facebook page.

Dividing the year into three “seasons”, Merseypray offer a particular prayer focus for each of these. Each seasons is launched by a launch event, and a resource leaflet is produced which offers:

• Key facts an statistics to help churches pray for the particular area of public life that is the season’s focus.

• A Biblical reflection, to help Christians relate the particular area of focus to their own faith.

• Prayer resources – a mix of ideas for how to develop prayer within the local church, and a selection of relevant prayers and reflections.

Having met last week the leaders of Pray for Wirral and Merseypray will be working closely together after the Pray for Wirral launch to equip people throughout Merseyside with clear, focused and well informed prayer themes – First partnership update will go out in January 2011 and then every term thereafter.

There is no need to wait until January, Merseypray are already producing some very good resources which you can find here.

Marie Armitage, Joint Director of Public Health speaking a the first LEW summit

Our prayer theme for Spring 2012 is the Life Expectancy Wirral Project and the wider themes of poverty and deprivation.

Life Expectancy Wirral (LEW) was developed to respond to the fact that people living on the Mersey side of the Wirral die, on average, nearly 12 years younger than those on the Dee side. As members of the LEW project suggest:

“We cannot ignore this fact – as Christians we are called to particularly care for the marginalized. We need to respond to this issue and challenge situations of injustice.”

The project has been pioneered by Bishop of Birkenhead, Keith Sinclair and a small team who are committed to respond to this issue and challenge of poverty in Wirral and situations of injustice.

BACKGROUND
The Wirral peninsula in the North West of England is an area of great contrasts, with significant deprivation on the east side and relative a”uence on the west. One alarming measure of this contrast is life expectancy: a man born in a deprived community on the east of the Wirral can expect to live for 11 fewer years than a man born in an affuent community on the west; for women, the difference is 6.5 years. It was on learning about this disparity that the Bishop of Birkenhead, The Rt Revd Keith Sinclair, established ‘Life Expectancy Wirral’ in conjunction with the Diocese of Chester.

A central objective of the Life Expectancy Wirral project is bringing parishes together from deprived and wealthier areas in an equal relationship, with common goals and a shared commitment to learn from each other. The speci!c aims of the project are:

• To raise awareness of the nature and extent of poverty on the Wirral, and how this contributes to
  differences in life expectancy;
• To highlight to churches the biblical imperative to address poverty;
• To enable churches to respond to these issues in a long-term and sustainable way;
• To capture the learning and potential for replication elsewhere.

Two parishes took part in the pilot study – one from a particularly deprived area of Birkenhead and one
from a relatively a”uent area in West Wirral (see table overleaf). Four more churches have since been
paired up and seven more churches are keen to participate in future pairings. Small groups from each
church are guided by a facilitator (who can be a trained volunteer) through a five-stage programme to learn more about local deprivation, find out about each other’s areas, and examine biblical perspectiveson poverty.

“Life expectancy varies by up to 11 years across the five-mile wide Wirral peninsula – a pattern that is mirrored in many other parts of the country. As Christians and churches, how do we feel when we see these vast differences in health and opportunities and what can we do to stop this injustice? It was in response to these questions that the Bishop of Birkenhead and the Diocese of Chester set up the Life Expectancy Wirral programme in 2009, with funding from Church Urban Fund. This innovative and ambitious programme brings together churches from wealthy and deprived areas to engage with these issues and to begin to tackle local inequality.” http://www.cuf.org.uk/life-expectancy-wirral

As the Council website suggests “Wirral Council is facing the same budget challenges as other Councils and needs to adapt. We want local people and Council Tax payers to be a part of this process by having a genuine say on how their money is spent so that we can make sure that Council services really meet their needs.”

Local Christians can have their say in this process. If you would like to do just that please visit www.wirral.gov.uk/wirralsfuture

You can listen to tonight’s launch event live on Flame Christian Radio either by tuning your AM radio to 1521mw or on the internet here.

The History of Flame 1521:

In June 2000 four people (Norman & Mark Polden, Mike Smith and Adrian Bryan) set up a radio station in Wirral Christian Centre in Birkenhead, with an antenna on St Saviour’s Church tower, and broadcast, under restricted Service Licence on 106.2 MHz FM for 28 tiring days to celebrate the Millennium. Many people found us on the dial and came to help us, and encouraged us to broadcast again. So a group of volunteers converted part of an old night club in Bebington into a studio, audio facilities and office. An antenna was put onto the Storeton Tower and the “Flame FM on Wirral” broadcasts on 87.7 Mhz FM reached parts of Liverpool, Runcorn, Chester and Rhyl, as well as Wirral. The team grew, 24 hour broadcasts were established with computers, and Flame broadcast to the maximum allowance of two 28 day broadcasting periods per year. We proved that ordinary people, with computers and second hand equipment, and an extra-ordinary God, could achieve a professional sounding radio station to a listenership who were hungry for a family friendly radio with a Christian ethos. And introduced to people a wide range of Christian music, of all genres.

In this period, Flame’s youngsters won a Jerusalem Productions “Best Newcomer” Award in 2004, and the Haynesies Friends series on people’s stories was Highly Commended by the Christian Broadcasting Council in 2006. In 2005 the Countryside Commission grant-aided a series of Heritage Programmes, which were completed in 2008 and are now on our web-site for “listen again”. Some of our teaching programmes have been broadcast on other UK radio stations and supplied to a Bible College in the Far East. Wirral’s ethnic minorities were served by programmes in Chinese, and Irish music. We also helped Wirral Carers with CARER’S FM in June 2006.

In parallel with broadcasting, we joined other UK Christian groups in pressurising the government for full-time licenses. Our 2004 application to Ofcom for a licence was rejected in 2006 because of a dearth of FM frequencies in the North-West, but at the end of 2007 Ofcom offered us a Medium Wave Community Radio licence and Flame CCR (Christian and Community Radio) was born.

In the years 2000 to 2007, our “practice field”, we learnt the value of a local focus in broadcasting (involving local people, raising local interest). We drew people from all denominations. building bridges into the community – via people being interviewed, making programmes, being voices on air, being part of the technical crew, and helping in the office. We also recorded music in our “Green Door Studio” for broadcasting. We proved that radio is very effective in providing encouragement, company, and a “background” to life – everywhere we go we hear the sound of a radio. We forged links with Wirral’s churches via “Churches Together in Wirral” and helped them establish a comprehensive web-site www.churcheswirral.co.uk with details of all Wirral churches. A confident estimate is that well over 10,000 people have listened to Flame; we still meet people who were blessed by Flame. Our programmes included people’s stories, via our “Chat room” (with some of the stories available on CD) and “Haynesies Friends”. Also poetry for children (Tilly Tuppence) and adults (poetry from Clive). And many genres of music, some recorded in our own Green Door studio (they laugh a lot behind the green door).

Between June 2000 and April 2007 “Flame FM on Wirral” brought over 9,000 hours of Christian radio to a potential audience of over 300,000 people for a total cost of £225,000.

Flame had to change location, after our 14th RSL broadcast, in May 2007 and this, plus finance limitations, stopped further FM broadcasts from Storeton. But an office and limited studio has now been established in Rock Ferry, in St Paul’s Road Mission. To give us experience in internet radio, and to maintain our broadcasting expertise, Flame on the Web commenced broadcasting on Valentine’s Day 2008. A medium wave antenna has now been built in North Wirral and broadcasts on 1521 MHz medium wave started on 19th December 2009 … realising the dream of full-time radio broadcasting. These broadcasts reach all of Wirral and beyond.