The annual Prayer Breakfast was organised by the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and attended by over 250 church leaders from across the country, as well as George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury and Michael Martin, Speaker of the House of Commons.  The theme of this year’s event was ‘Unity in Christ.’

Faithworks Founder Steve Chalke and Faithworks National Co-ordinator Nathan Oley were invited to lead a Faithworks seminar.  Steve spoke about the rediscovery of the Church as being at the core of community life.  Furthering the theme of unity that J John introduced in his speech at the breakfast itself, Steve mentioned the need for churches to unite once again with their communities in which they minister as well as the need for churches to act in unity with ‘secular’ and statutory agencies to serve the needs of those communities.

Faithworks also canvassed opinion from the church leaders who attended the seminar on what churches felt were the most important issues demanding society’s attention today.  Leaders were almost unanimous in feeling that family life was the most important issue, and in particular the issue of help and training for marriage and parenting.  Asylum and immigration was felt to be the second most important issue, with health and education running a joint third.

The theme of unity is at the heart of Faithworks.  The Faithworks Movement aims to encourage unity and partnership between the Church and community, celebrating the work of church-based community projects and equipping them to develop practical community projects with effective partnerships with statutory agencies.

Since its launch in February 2001 Faithworks has made great progress, securing cross-party support and substantive changes to government policy:

• The Faithworks Declaration gathered over 75,000 signatures calling for a level playing field between faith-based and secular community projects.
• The Government is about to endorse new guidelines that equip local councils to partner faith groups.
• Easier, less bureaucratic access to Government Funds for church community projects and improved communication between churches and government.

As it looks to the future, Faithworks is drawing together a broadly based Movement of Christian agencies and Denominations, which will equip churches to put their faith into practice.