The Bishop of London, Rt Rev Richard Chartres, Rev Joel Edwards, General Director of the one million member Evangelical Alliance, Sarah Linsell, Director of the Catholic Agency for Social Concern, (representing the Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales), and Gerald Coates, Team Leader of the Pioneer church network joined Steve Chalke, and Faithworks Campaign Manager Nathan Oley,  to hand in the four point Declaration which calls on the government to:

• Recognise the important contribution that local churches and Christian charities have made and can make in providing welfare within the local community.
• Acknowledge the vital role that faith plays in the motivation and effectiveness of welfare programmes developed by churches and Christian charities.
• Encourage and support the work of local initiatives developing welfare in the community, including those run by churches and other faith-based organisations, through specific legislation, outcome-related monitoring and funding without unnecessary bureaucracy or cost.
• Ensure that funding criteria for government and local authority grants to projects providing welfare in the local community do not discriminate against the faith that is vital to the success of the work of churches and faith-based organisations.

“Together we have thrown down the gauntlet to the Government. Today we handed the Prime Minister the signatures of 70,000 Christians from every denomination and region who took him at his word when he said that he wants to work with us. We now await his response and stand ready to help to deliver strong partnerships that will serve the neediest members of every community ”  
                                                       Steve Chalke, Faithworks Founder

Campaigners were welcomed into Downing Street to brief the Prime Minister’s special adviser on Church matters who assured them that Tony Blair would take their concerns very seriously and examine ways of overcoming the barriers that church-based social action projects sometimes face to partnership with statutory agencies.   The Prime Minister’s Special Adviser also reiterated the government’s commitment to working with faith groups on a basis which recognises that they serve communities in practical ways “because of your faith and not in spite of it” as Tony Blair himself said at the ‘Faith in Politics’ conference earlier this year.
                             
Faithworks was launched in February 2001 in response to a  survey of over 3,000 UK churches. This revealed that that one in five churches feel that their community projects have been excluded from government funding because of their faith basis and that 90% of churches would expand their community projects if more government help were available.  The Campaign has highlighted the positive and transforming nature of faith in local communities throughout the UK. It has also called on the incoming government to take policy measures to ensure that effective and accountable faith-based groups are supported in their community work, and judged on their results, rather than being treated with suspicion or even raw discrimination.

Before the General Election Faithworks Campaigners met with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, senior Civil Servants, William Hague, Charles Kennedy and officials from The Local Government Association who all spoke warmly about the Campaign and the need for Government to liaise more closely with faith groups. Labour’s manifesto stated; “We welcome the contribution of churches and other faith-based organisations as partners of local and central government in community renewal," and the Conservatives promised to “end discrimination against faith-based community groups.” The Faithworks Campaign will now continue to work with both churches and politicians of all parties throughout the next Parliament to ensure that these promises turn into policies.