Living for Jesus and Justice

Still reeling from Herculean efforts to organise and deliver emergency food during the pandemic, councils, churches, and community organisations are being looked to in anticipation of the cost-of-living crisis this winter[1]. “Warm Banks” are being touted as a reasonable strategy to combat the brutal impact of another 80% increase in energy prices this autumn. Even with the announcement that the “price cap” will be set at £2,500 (which is almost 1/3 of the State Pension), simple modelling predicts 6.2 million people in Britain will be severely affected by fuel poverty.

Perhaps you have been discussing how to open your building over winter. We here at Bonny Downs in Newham can’t just sit by. As a borough, we are already among the worst affected by the “low wage” economy. Thirty-two percent of my neighbours earned under the London living wage of £10.55 per hour [2]. Our community association was the hub of Covid relief responses, distributing thousands of emergency food parcels over the pandemic and revealing the hidden plight of thousands of our neighbours already in dire poverty, living with No Recourse to Public Funds. We love to bring people together, we have experience strategising and delivering emergency responses locally—so how could we not offer our venues as warm banks this winter?

Can I suggest we all pause for a moment and think of how justice needs to firmly hold hands with mercy during the cost-of-living crisis? There are good reasons not to open a Warm Centre in your church or community centre and perhaps ways to do it well if you decide to go ahead. Before acting, be aware that:

  • This is a chronic problem rather than a passing emergency. Stepping into the gap is a worthy knee-jerk rection to suffering, but chronic exploitation needs us to engage our minds as well as our hearts. Think though how reliance on food banks has become normalised. In 2010–11 the Trussell Trust operated around 35 food bank centres. Last year, for the first time aside from the first year of the pandemic, food banks in the Trussell Trust network distributed over 2.1 million food parcels.[3] Reliance on food banks should never have become part of the low-wage, precarious nature of employment or the failures of the welfare system to settle claims in a humane time period. But it seems that it has. Have we, the churches, been part of the discourse that normalises this? (And yes, we have a food bank and a food pantry here at Bonny Downs, so we know and live this dilemma.)
  • This is perhaps best understood as a manufactured crisis. This winter’s energy bill increases coexist with massive windfall profits in the energy sector. Exxon Mobil made $18bn in profits in the past three months. Shell and Chevron each made nearly $12bn. This is exceptional, but also extends a long trajectory of extraordinary profit. According to World Bank data, the oil and gas industry has delivered £2.3bn a day in pure profit for the last 50 years.[4] The fossil fuel industry also benefits from subsidies of $16bn a day, according to the International Monetary Fund. [5] Before we open our doors, let’s take time to think through how this reality is spoken about in our communities. Fact check everything but let’s make sure we do not fall into the trap of speaking about “budgeting” or “cost-saving” when in reality we need to speak about corporate profits and the relationship between energy companies and governments. (The current prime minister Liz Truss was employed as an industrial economist by Shell for four years between 1996 and 2000).
  • The current government response will store up an enormous debt. Having rejected the idea of a tax on extraordinary profits, the current response puts the cost of price increases onto consumers and the price-cap scheme will increase borrowing to exceed £100bn. Is national debt funding private companies’ windfall profits? Can we speak to our elected members of parliament about this?
  • The cost-of-living crisis has already put back the environmental lobby to limit the production of fossil fuels. It may well be that “Just Stop Oil” and “Insulate Britain” were wise and prophetic rather than naïve slogans. How can your community speak about this and perhaps join in a campaign or forward environmental justice this winter?
  • And a practicality: currently, church buildings and community centres are excluded from the price cap. There have been no details to date on what the government means by the new six-month scheme offering “equivalent support” to some businesses as to domestic customers. This means it may be better to organise for a few domestic, hospitable homes to be heated and opened to neighbours than one church hall.

And if you do go ahead, as we will, here are some ideas to consider:

  • Think of this an opportunity to build community through harnessing the existing assets in your neighbourhood – think connect and involve rather than offering a service to your community. There’s a great piece by Corin Pelling to get your community started on the ABCD approach.
  • If you do open as a type of warm bank, why not put out verified information about the realities behind the energy price increase? Get the teens involved in making posters. Encourage artistic responses. These can be one way to tell the truth about this crisis and to protest its deeper realities.
  • Collect stories and video evidence of the effects of fuel poverty on people in your community (this needs to be done carefully, conferring dignity and protecting anonymity). These can be used to evidence your church or centre’s impact (which you may need to secure funding) and are powerful ways to amplify the voices of those most affected.
  • Raise awareness of how your community is addressing the cost-of-living crisis on social media using the hashtag #warmbanksarenotnormal. Tag Red Letter Christians UK on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Together we can assemble an online portal to add your community’s story to our social media. We can gather and amplify stories and snippets from a national context, sharing the justice and mercy responses as the Church lifts their voice in justice, as well as rolls up their sleeves for mercy.

So what will we do? To open or not to open? We at Bonny Downs are about to launch at least one of our venues as a daily volunteer-led “CommuniTEA café” this winter. It will offer free tea and coffee, WIFI, and workspaces. Those who can afford it will be invited to donate through an online gift (no shaking tins). While those who cannot, will be invited to donate time to welcome, wash up, and/or lead a shift. Folk are already speaking about the flavour they will bring–board games, a mini library, cultural activities around recipes. And as part of our preparation we’ll wrestle with the ideas above and do our best to balance mercy and justice.


[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/councils-plan-food-bank-style-warm-banks-help-residents-survive/

[2] https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/low-pay-in-London-boroughs/

[3] https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/end-year-stats/

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/revealed-oil-sectors-staggering-profits-last-50-years

[5] https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Still-Not-Getting-Energy-Prices-Right-A-Global-and-Country-Update-of-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-466004

About The Author

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Author, Minister, Lecturer & Community Activist

Sally Mann has a PhD in Philosophy and Theology and lectures in Sociology. She is a minister at Bonny Downs Baptist Church where she is the 4th of 5 generations of her family to stay put and serve in that East-End community. Sally is on the editorial board of the Journal of Missional Practice www.journalofmissionalpractice.com where she loves to curate stories of people doing amazing things in their communities and ask what on earth God is up to through all of it? Sally has written a book ‘Looking for Lydia: encounters that shape the church’ reflecting on 25 years of ministry in London through the stories of encounters in Acts. Sally was on the original team who launched RLC UK and is proud to be a Red Letter Christian.

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