Faith Communities And The Good Society

I met people from a church who provide practical services for needy people without financial reward. A trainee social worker spent a week with them.The following week all the trainee social workers reported on their placements. They were full of gloom, But this one told with amazement of improvements in all sorts of clients. 'They must have had especially strong characters' was his only explanation. The social work set-up cannot believe that faith is a key factor in improving social well-being, and often Local Authorities discriminate against faith communities. Yet the national Government encourages them to work with faith communities because its reseach shows that in UK as in USA the social outreach of faith communities is huge and cost-effective. Sooner or later people will realise that faith rooted in the command to love your neighbour is the most sustainable basis for a nation's social fabric.