On 13th September 2019, over 50 people gathered at Coventry University for the Life on the Breadline workshop on transforming structural injustice – a theme explored in a previous blog post.
The resources from the workshop include summaries and audio recordings from our speakers (Mike Hardy, Chris Shannahan, Robert Beckford, Anthony Reddie, Niall Cooper and Stef Benstead) and panelists (Heather Buckingham, Paul Morrison and Helen Gale), videos used during the day, and summaries of group discussions.
“In this workshop and across the entire Life on the Breadline project we are keen to identify ways in which the Churches are working for structural economic and political change to – as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it – move beyond ‘bandaging up the wounds of the broken’ to ram a ‘spoke into the wheel of injustice itself’.”
Chris Shannahan, life on the breadline lead researcher
Through guest speakers, panelists and group discussions, the workshop was based around three questions:
1. What different forms does poverty take where you work, and how do you respond to them?
2. What resources can we find in Christian tradition/the Bible to help us transform unjust structures?
3. How can the Church transform unjust structures?
After our guest speakers gave their reflections on each theme, small group discussions facilitated the sharing of ideas between workshop participants, before the three panelists added their reflections which helped to root the questions in the daily challenges of austerity.
“It’s been a really good day. One of the things that has struck me is the way in which churches can offer a space in which the local grassroots experience of people living in poverty can be brought together with policy makers who’ve go the power to change things for a more just society.”
Revd michaela youngson, former president of the methodist conference
