Richard Harries, Director of Caritas Westminster writes about a conference that took place this week with keynote speaker Lord Khan of Burnley, Faith Minister.
The first half of 2025 has proven a tumultuous time for the relationship between the church and secular Britain, leaving many to ask what our faith still has to offer in a country that seems daily to move further and further away from its Christian roots.
A welcome counter-current to this drift was the conference organised earlier this week by Caritas Westminster and Stir to Action. Deliberately billed as a cross-sectoral, cross-denominational event, ‘They shall build up the ancient ruins’ brought together over 100senior church leaders, frontline practitioners, academics, policymakers, grant funders and social investors from across the country to discuss how unused and underused church property could be the key to rebuilding communities in our connection-starved society.
Our keynote speaker, Lord Khan of Burnley, rightly noted that “Christian churches have long played a vital role supporting and strengthening local communities.” This fact affords us a privileged position from which we can set the tone for a uniquely Christian approach to property asset management; one that places communion front and centre.
As we discussed strategic approaches, lessons from the past, and considered examples of successful church property reuse (among which was Caritas Westminster’s own Seeds Hub), participants — Christian and otherwise — were united by a common cause: to restitch the social fabric of the country and bring vital social infrastructure back into use for the common good.