FbRN is involved in A Year of Service

Why ‘A Year of Service?’

Acts of service as signs of faith are common across all the religions. People may offer service as a group or individually. People choose the kind of service they offer, it may range from giving money or goods through to giving time to assist or run a social action project.

What is important in all the faith traditions is that giving service is a way of expressing faith.

FbRN’s role

A Year of Service celebrates this innate shared response to faith. The Faith Based Regeneration Network is pleased to be part of the organisation of this project. We will be promoting the twelve different festivals that are the stimulus for shared social action. We shall be encouraging all our members to take part by joining with people of other faiths to share their festivals through local social action.

We will be working with the steering group to ensure that the Year of Service is successful, and that the learning can be used to encourage more shared acts of service in local communities. Our staff and trustees won’t just promote a Year of Service, we shall all be involved in giving service in some way.

Partnerships – Health Mela, Gujarat Hindu Society Preston

What is faith based social action?

Faith based social action happens when people of faith work together, often with others outside their faith community, in order to achieve real and positive change within their local community, or in wider society.
It springs from the application of spiritual principles, for the betterment of society and the improvement of people’s lives.

It can take many forms ranging from working with particular groups of people to whole community activities. It can focus on social, economic, environmental or political projects. What’s important is that it is locally based, it gets things done, it brings positive change that people want and those involved are motivated by faith, or happy to work with people of faith.

Springfield – social action across faiths at the Springfield Centre Birmingham

How can we be involved?

The Year of Service website will give you plenty of ideas and links to organisations to help you plan an activity around a particular festival.  The range of activities is limitless so here are a few questions to help you plan what is realistic for your group to do:

Which festival are you celebrating?

This will help you to decide what kind of social action is appropriate and which faith groups to work with.

How much time have you got?

It is better to do something small and do it well than to be too ambitious. Remember, planning the action can take longer than doing it. It is also worth thinking how the event can be continued, or repeated next year, so it is not just a one off.

Who wants to join you?

A small group might run a coffee morning for isolated people in your area. A bigger team might plan a lunch party for the same group. Ideally your group will include people of different faiths.

How can you resource our activity?

More than just money, you will need people, you may need a venue, you may need to promote the event to get helpers and participants. Don’t let money put you off; a huge amount can be done with very little resource. For more support advice and ideas go to: A Year of Service

Don’t forget to let A Year of Service know about your event so it can be included in the final celebration of the year.