Category Archives: Briefing

Faith Groups and Planning in Scotland

Briefing, Case study, Faith and Place network, Planning, Scotland

RTPI Scotland have recently published a guest blog post about Faith Groups and the Planning System in Scotland. Paul Ede, a Planning Advisory Service (PAS) volunteer, writes about Clay Community Church in Glasgow and how faith groups can play an active role in place making.

Engaging with our network policy briefing, Paul writes “At their best, faith groups like the planning system steward their energies for the the common good. The concerns of planning are important to faith groups, and the concerns of faith groups are important to planning”. Take a look here.

Religion and the Public Sphere

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Migration, New Black Majority Churches, Places of worship

Somewhat belatedly, Faith and Place network members may be interested in the Religion and the Public Sphere blog from the London School of Economics. As part of the Pentecostalism in Britain series, network co-leader, Dr Andrew Rogers, and network member, Bishop Dr Joe Aldred, have both published pieces on this blog in recent months.

Take a look at “How are black majority churches growing in the UK?” which includes discussion of the network and policy briefing. See also “Pentecostalism in Britain today” which profiles the diversity that exists in British Pentecostalism today.

Wales policy briefing published

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Local Planning Authorities, Migration, Places of worship, Planning, Policy, Report, Social cohesion, , , , ,

HUM070616AR (Policy Briefing) WELSH cover   HUM070616AR (Welsh Eng Policy Briefing) cover

The Faith and Place network is delighted to announce the publication of our Wales policy briefing this month. You can download an electronic version in English or Welsh here.  Dual language print versions are being sent out to local planning authorities and religious organisations in Wales over the next few weeks. The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, had this to say about the July 2016 Wales policy briefing:

Bydd y canllaw hwn yn cael ei groesawu’n fawr, a’i werthfawrogi’n arbennig gan grwpiau ffydd nad ydynt yn ddigon ffodus i gael cefnogaeth adrannau eiddo sefydliadol, yn ogystal â chynllunwyr sy’n ceisio cael dealltwriaeth well o’r anghenion a’r posibiliadau o fewn eu cymunedau.

This guide is very welcome, and will be particularly appreciated by faith groups who are not fortunate enough to be backed up by organisational property departments, and by planners seeking a better understanding of the needs and possibilities within their communities.

For the full message from the Archbishop, click here.

 

Commission report supports briefing

Briefing, Local Planning Authorities, Policy, , ,

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The report of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, Living with Difference: Community, Diversity and the Common Good, was published on 7th December 2015. One of its key recommendations was as follows:

Much greater religion and belief literacy is needed in every section of society, and at all levels. The potential for misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplication based on ignorance is huge. The commission therefore calls on educational and professional bodies to draw up religion and belief literacy programmes and projects, including an annual awards scheme to recognise and celebrate best practice in the media.

This resonates strongly with the Faith and Place network’s policy briefing, especially the first core theme of ‘Understanding One Another’. In it we identify the need for ‘greater understanding and dialogue between local planning authorities and faith groups’, specifically recommendation 1 and 5 as follows:

1. Local planning authorities need to develop greater understanding of how faith groups use space, which includes recognition of the differences between and within faith groups themselves. To facilitate this, specific guidance on how faith groups use space needs to be made available, for example, through supplementary planning documents that reflect the contemporary religious landscape. Generating such guidance may benefit from collaboration with the relevant professional bodies and faith groups.

5. Faith groups also need to have greater understanding of the planning system. This   might be facilitated by guides produced by local planning authorities, in collaboration with faith groups and other civil society organisations. These guides should clarify the practicalities of the planning system and also outline how planning policies can be applied to accommodate the needs of faith groups. Such collaboration, as recommended by the RTPI over 30 years ago, should not be a one-way process.

We are now working to see how the network might facilitate greater mutual understanding between faith groups and local planning authorities.

Faith and Place News

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Local Planning Authorities, ,

A very happy new year to all our website visitors! Just to let you know that videos of the Faith and Place Futures speakers from July 2015 are now on the website here. Videos of the policy briefing launch at the House of Commons in October 2015 are now also available on the website here. The above samples are of Stephen Timms MP speaking at the House of Commons launch and secondly of participants at the very warm Futures symposium.

The other news is that our funding council have agreed to extend the Faith and Place network until February 2016, largely to enable the network leaders to complete remaining network tasks, in particular disseminating the briefing to all local planning authorities in England and further developing our European connections.

 

RTPI backs briefing

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Places of worship, Planning, Policy, ,

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The Royal Town Planning Institute published its support for the Faith and Place policy briefing on 20th October in The Planner, its official magazine. Kathie Pollard, policy and networks advisor (pictured), said:

“We are very pleased to have been a part of the creation of this paper as it is an incredibly important and timely piece of work which planners and faith communities should engage with.

“It helps planners and decision-makers to make the most well-informed choices to create great places for communities to live, work and play in – including places of worship. We believe that it is a good guide for conversations between faith groups and local authorities on how to use space and to engage in the planning system.”

For the full list of messages of support, see the Support tab.

 

Policy briefing launched

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Migration, Places of worship, Planning, Policy, , , , , ,

HUM021015AR (Policy Briefing) Cover

The Faith and Place network policy briefing was launched at the House of Commons on Thursday 15th October 2015. The evening was opened Stephen Timms MP reflecting on faith and place, followed by the network leaders giving an overview of the briefing recommendations. Responding to the briefing were Mustafa Field MBE (Faiths Forum for London) and Rev Katei Kirby (Ruach City Church). A panel was convened to discuss ways in which the recommendations will be taken forward. Video of the evening will soon be available on the website video tab. Click on the image above to download a copy of the briefing.

Archbishop and DCLG Minister endorse briefing

Briefing, Faith and Place network, Migration, Places of worship, Planning, Policy, , , , , , ,

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The Faith and Place network’s policy briefing, launched on Thursday 15th October at the House of Commons, has already been endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby; the Minister for Housing and Planning, Brandon Lewis MP; Mustafa Field MBE of Faiths Forum for London and Dr R David Muir of the National Church Leaders’ Forum.

For full details of the endorsements click here or for details of the launch click here.