"Tottenham Riots Brought Out the Best in My Church"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

"...The church, the vicarage and most of the street didn't have electricity until Monday lunchtime but the faithful got into action spontaneously.

Emergency service personnel and those affected by the devastation were offered friendly faces, tea and coffee, food, somewhere to sit, a toilet and somewhere to charge mobile phones (landlines aren't that common).

It was amazingly heartening to return and find all this already in progress – it was the natural response for the congregation. It also meant I could walk round the parish and be with people elsewhere. Most people say hello to the clergy in Tottenham but in the last few days the customary salutation has been exchanged for statements and questions: "So, what do you think about this?", "I'm glad you're around", "Isn't it frightening?" They wanted to speak to someone with authority, but perhaps especially because they'd seen me walking those same streets and living there with them for the past three years – it's what we do in the Church of England..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/aug/10/tottenham-riots-church

This is reminiscent of the way Trinity Church Wall Street opened its doors to the 9/11 responders and victims in 2001.

[AlecBGreen]

1. good to hear

thanks for sharing Lydia :)

[Jim__]

2. I don't know anything about Tottenham, but I am curious.

From reading the comments following the article, it sounds like Tottenham is a poor area. Is it like the slums in the US? I've also had the impression that church attendance is way down in England. Is church attendance in Tottenham higher than the average in England? Is it generally higher in the poor areas than wealthy areas?

It's great that the church people helped out. There are definitely functions, largely informal community building functions, that are carried out by churches. Community ties are extremely helpful in emergency situations. As church attendance drops, there needs to be be something that replaces this community building aspect of the church.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. I don't know anything about Tottenham,

(London is a huge, sprawling city that absorbed a lot of villages as it grew and has very distinct neighborhoods) but I do know that many people in England (and in Europe in general) who do not attend church regularly still have their children baptized, get married in church, and have their funerals in churches. Also, if Tottenham has a lot of immigrants from the former colonies, the Christians from those areas tend to have a higher rate of church attendance than the ethnic English population.

The article makes it clear to anyone knowledgeable about Anglicanism that the parish featured in the article is Anglo-Catholic. Anglo-Catholics are part of the Church of England (and the Episcopal Church in the U.S.), but they retain a lot of traditionally Roman Catholic worship customs and have highly formalized services, which they refer to as Mass when the Eucharist is celebrated.

Ironically, these highly formalized parishes are also some of the most active in poor and marginalized areas. They have a long tradition of charitable work.

[Jim__]

5. Thanks. - n/t

[LeftishBrit]

4. Thanks Lydia...

There are indeed many churches here that work for their communities and do charitable work. I'd say that the proportion of churches that wish to help others, as compared with those who wish to enforce a right-wing agenda, is probably considerably higher in England than the USA. But they are not a substitute for decent government (which might have prevented the riots in the first place), and are overwhelmed as a result of the government's cuts.