Church must be ready to help rising unemployed

Unemployment will continue to soar as the workplace feels the full effects of the recession, charities have warned. Church groups supporting the jobless urged Christians to become involved. Revd Paul Nicholson of Zacchaeus 2000 Trust expressed it bluntly: ‘Church people should get off their bums, get out there and befriend these people’. He said there are now 7.5 million people in the UK in poverty. Andy Dalton, outreach worker at Holme United Reformed Church, on the edge of Bradford, said things have become really tough on their large, deprived housing estate. People need ‘a lot of handholding’, he said. Bill Nicholls, a former Youth Trainer in Wolverhampton said the situation is worse than the 1980s. He said, ‘The church has a key role’ and is ‘a powerhouse of talent’, but he was afraid it ‘has lost its vision’ to help.

Source: Church Times (21/8)