One Body

John and I attended the East Cambs Parish and Community Forum meeting on Wednesday with people from a range of organisations and charities from across East Cambridgeshire to look at the newly released Cambs Poverty Strategy Commission Report and dive deeper, especially into the issue of food poverty. 

Figures from the report help give a picture of poverty as it is experienced across Cambridgeshire:

The conclusion of the report was the need for an emphasis on a collective responce to poverty in Cambridgeshire - putting an end to poverty is not something that one organisation or charity can do on its own, but all should work together collaboratively to provide a holistic service, share knowledge and improve accessibility.

Community hubs, bringing together support for food, mental health, physical wellness, income maximisation, debt help etc. can help in this way, particularly important in rural areas where services are harder to access. Websites such as How are You East Cambridgeshire are also great examples of collaborative signposting which can benefit our Ely and District CAP clients, pointing them to services in their own communities: How Are You East Cambs? | Home

Collaborative working is a key message in the Bible, different spirit gifts used for the benefit of all with no part more or less significant, or more or less able than any other, working together as one body in Christ for the benefit of all parts and the service of the whole:

1 Corinthians 12: 12 - 26 (NIV)

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Prayer

Please pray for all our Ely and District CAP Clients, for the many problems that they face as well as debt and for all those helping to provide solutions and help. Pray for the courage that it takes to reach out and ask for help, the removal of barriers that can prevent access to services and for the love and support that is available to them.

Please pray for our debt coaches, John and Pat and for the befrienders, for the love and care and the knowledge of Christ's presence that they bring into our clients homes, for the building up of knowledge of the services available in the local area to signpost to our clients, for all the many gifts of skill and knowledge that make up the Ely and District CAP team.

Please pray for all those working in different organisations and charities in East Cambridgeshire and across the country, pray for joined up thinking, collaboration and knowledge sharing as well as improved promotion and accessibility to build up a holistic approach to tackle poverty in our communities.