Crisis talks

This evening I attended an event held at our church under the auspices of the Edinburgh Interfaith Association. It is Scotland’s oldest interfaith association and has long had links with our church .

The event was to look at how faith organisations might look beyond immediate responses to the challenges of the cost of living crisis.

Speakers included the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fuller; and from the University of Edinburgh Drs Nason Maani and Gwenetta Curry. The vote of thanks came from Prof Joe Goldblatt and the EIFA team were there also in support.

It was a detailed discussion about how best to turn good intentions into action, recognising the complex interactions of various levers in society. Some funded by central and local government; others provided by the third sector, faith groups and volunteers. What we are witnessing just now is the culmination of years of cut backs with no recognition of the cumulative effect.

There was a call to petition and to voice our concerns, indeed our disbelief, that in one of the richest countries in the world such a significant proportion of our society lived in poverty and reliant on food banks.