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Recollections

by
03 January 2014

Canon Paul Brett writes:
FURTHER to your obituaries of Canon Frank Scuffham (Gazette, 15 and 22 November): one aspect of Frank's ministry which should not be forgotten is his concern for the unemployed.

In February 1982, when one in eight workers was jobless, Church Action With the Unemployed sent a large leaflet, "The Time for Action is Now", to 25,000 clergy and lay people in England, Scotland, and Wales, urging them to help tackle the problem. Frank called them our "retail outlets". Four support leaflets were available: "Drop-In and Resource Centres", "Coping with Unemployment", "Training and Work Experience Schemes", and "Creating New Jobs".

In the first three weeks, 116,000 copies had been ordered. CAWTU had been founded by Frank, and was chaired by him, and staff had been appointed through the generosity of someone whom he had met at the Nationwide Initiative in Evangelism conference that we both attended in 1980, and through donations from churches, charities, and others.

Industrial chaplains were particularly active in this initiative, and a network of contacts (we called them "brokers") was established round the country. A substantial catalogue of unemployment projects was compiled, giving examples of what was being, or could be, done.

This sort of practical action, emerging from Christian faith, was real evangelism. I was proud to be Frank's colleague and his friend.

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