Friends in Scotland consider poverty action
'The phrase “speaking truth to power” kept cropping up.’
Scottish Quakers are considering how they can respond to a new initiative for churches to unite to fight poverty.
Writing in the Scottish Friend, Marilyn Higgins, from Central Edinburgh Meeting, wrote about an online conference/consultation through Church Action on Poverty that she attended in January, on behalf of General Meeting for Scotland. The conference was part of a research project called ‘Life on the Breadline’.
‘The purpose of the project is to look at the impact of austerity and Christian action on poverty so that government policy and faith-based action can be improved.’
With the emphasis on ‘listening and acting alongside, not doing things “for” or “to” others’, the Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas Programme was cited as a good example of a national church putting resources into marginalised local communities. The Church has channelled resources into areas with the lowest five per cent of social and economic indicators across Scotland.
Marilyn Higgins said: ‘We were invited specifically to think positively about how we might join with others to affirm and empower those who are usually on the margins of the structures associated with power and privilege. We were encouraged to “diversify the voices, divest the power and be daring in our agendas”. All of this chimed with a number of Quaker discussions I have been involved in over the last couple of years. The phrase “speaking truth to power” kept cropping up.’
