Faith Forum Round-up (26th March 2025)
- alexfisher36
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 9
A summary of all the talking points from the first Faith Forum
Alex Fisher opened the meeting by introducing himself as the Faith Development Worker for WCVS.
He explained a bit of the background around how the post had been created, referencing the work done in establishing the Pillars of Wirral CVS, with Faith being one of them. He referenced the work done on the Faith Audit to provide an evidence base for the tremendous work of the Faith sector and he discussed the opportunity the Faith sector has on the Wirral to collaborate on a faith voice.
Alex spoke a little about the journey of the Community and Voluntary sector and discussed how establishing a collective voice through events like the COP, Sector Leaders Group and the Volunteer Managers Forum allows the sector to be better represented and that this same opportunity is available for the Faith sector.
Alex recognised the difference between community, voluntary and faith and spoke of his hope that this opportunity will be the start of not just fruitful collaboration but also the opportunity to encourage work in areas that we agree really matter to the communities of Wirral.
Alex highlighted some of the events and content that was already available through Wirral CVS, including the Faith Newsletter, The Faith Funding Readiness Workshops and a variety of sector-wide events like Meet the Funder Workshops and the one-on-one support Wirral CVS offers.
Time was taken then to introduce those who were in attendance and who they were representing.
Reference was made to Alex's recent blog post about faith unity and a discussion was had around what unity looks like on the Wirral as it stands and perhaps what might stand in the way of further collaboration.
There was encouraging conversation about a number of examples of both inter-faith and inter-denominational collaboration on Wirral, pointing to some already strong examples. Faith4Change having 40 members and the Hope group (heads of denominations in the Christian church meeting regularly.)
Some of the barriers or concerns around unity that were raised included:
False unity - There was a concern in trying to collaborate with statutory bodies there might be an expectation that the Faith element of the work that is being done would be asked to be put to the side.
Communication - There are a lot of networks on the Wirral that already exist but there is no one central communication channel that is utilised. There was a general consensus that churches were often siloed in their communication only really sharing and discussing things they felt were relevant to their setting. This meant that larger initiatives can be easily missed. It was noted that staying in the loop can be a full time job at times and there is not the capacity for it.
Visibility - We want as many people to know about the opportunity to collaborate as possible so we want to make what we are doing as visible as possible. Some organisations although they want to be visible do not have the capacity to network with everyone often.
The group expressed that they were encouraged by the idea of a consistent Faith Forum but asked if it was possible to do both online sessions and an in-person sessions to try and open it up the largest possible audience.
Alex shared that Wirral CVS is looking at creating a faith-specific support page to help with both visibility and communication. He expressed that often these sorts of groups were a slow burn and took time to snowball but once a common central point was established that It was easier to point people to it and know that it was accessible not to attend everyone but to attend when possible.
Alex shared his email address and the Wirral CVS website and offered the opportunity of one-to-one support for anyone looking for help with capacity building, as well as to talk more about the Faith Forum and collaboration with other groups. Alex will share a timetable of faith forum events and have the events on the WCVS Website as soon as possible.
Comments