To aid the government as they develop their regulations and guidance allowing places of worship to reopen, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have commissioned FaithAction to gather information and opinions from faith groups across the country. We have set up weekly focus groups, representing all nine official faith groups and a women’s multifaith group, and we will be running workshops on best practice (i.e. how to adapt your place of worship to fit the needs of your community whilst still following government advice). We’ve also put together a mailing list specifically for COVID-related updates and will be making ourselves available for COVID ‘surgery calls’—an opportunity for you to raise concerns and share ideas about your place of worship in a one-to-one or small group setting with one of our staff.
Additionally, we’ll be providing resources to let you know how to make sure your place of worship benefits from the funding being released, both for the COVID response, and to help your communities going forward. We will also be partnering up with the Strengthening Faith Institutions programme to help you make use of existing funding.
Finally, we will be keeping you up to date as the government releases new guidance and information to help you get your places of worship back up and running. See our website for the latest information or sign up for our upcoming webinars where we will be distributing the latest guidance from the government.
FaithAction’s work will feed into the Government’s Taskforce on Reopening Places of Worship, convened by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick and Minister for Faith Lord Stephen Greenhalgh. FaithAction’s National Executive Director Daniel Singleton has been invited to be a member of this taskforce, and our weekly reports will also feed into the taskforce meetings. If you have any questions or have produced some guidance you think we ought to include in our reports, please email info@faithaction.net.
