*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Theology adviser hears rural ‘voiceless’

07 April 2017

PA

“Frustrations”: the view towards Essex over the QEII bridge, also known as the Dartford-Thurrock crossing

“Frustrations”: the view towards Essex over the QEII bridge, also known as the Dartford-Thurrock crossing

AT A conference held last week to discuss the impact that Brexit will have on the rural community, the National Adviser for Theology for the Church of England, Anne Richards, said that the Church must help to reconcile the growing divide, exposed in the EU referendum, between the rural and urban communities.

The conference, “Brexit and the Rural Future”, was hosted by the Arthur Rank Centre, an ecumenical Christian rural charity.

Dr Richards based her remarks on informal research that she and her team undertook in Thurrock and Peterborough — two of the districts that voted by the largest majorities for Leave — shortly after the referendum last year.

She heard a sense of voicelessness and powerlessness, she said on Tuesday. “Being able to vote gave them a voice, but the issues weren’t anything to do with the EU. Churches can provide people with a sense of talking about the intensively local things that matter to them.”

While it was too simplistic to cast all rural Leave voters as a homogeneous group, there was an “interesting” difference in where people obtained information, and who they encountered, between those in the countryside and those in towns, she said.

“The Church has got tremendous potential for reconciliation between different groups where there have been misunderstandings. I think a lot of the time people who go to church don’t really realise how great that potential is.”

The Church can also create opportunities for migrants to learn English, and for indigenous population to get to know their neighbours more: two problems that, Dr Richards said, emerged from her research.

The Brexit Secretary, David Davis, made little mention of farming or rural concerns during a House of Commons debate on the first part of the Government’s post-EU framework for regulations and laws.

The Great Repeal Bill: White Paper, which Mr Davis introduced to Parliament on Thursday of last week, will simultaneously repeal the European Communities Act 1972, convert EU law into British law, and create the powers for the Government to change these laws once the UK has formally left the EU.

Research commissioned by the National Farmers’ Union before the referendum suggested that the key factor in whether the agricultural industry would thrive outside the EU was not what kind of trade deal the UK secured during negotiations, but what proportion of the EU’s subsidies Westminster would continue to pay.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Inspiration: The Influences That Have Shaped My Life

September - November 2024

St Martin in the Fields Autumn Lecture Series 2024

tickets available

 

Can a ‘Good Death‘ be Assisted?

28 November 2024

A webinar in collaboration with Modern Church

tickets available

 

Through Darkness To Light: Advent Journeys

30 November 2024

tickets available

 

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)