It is no easy matter for a parish to engage with the key issues affecting our neighbourhood and community without taking sides politically, but we need to do so as an aspect of our Christian witness and service. In 2011 Hampstead Parish Church was among the founder members of North London Citizens, a non-political network of citizens organisations bringing together churches, mosques and synagogues, schools, colleges and universities, charities and many other local organisations to promote our shared concerns in the political space, and notably in making representations to Camden Council.
On 28 April, after our Annual Parish Meeting, Rhys Moore, Director of the Living Wage Foundation and Community Organiser for the Camden branch of Citizens UK, explained what North London Citizens was about. Then on 13 May, at a key moment in the political cycle, just nine days before the local election, about a dozen of us attended a Camden Citizens Assembly, at St Mary’s Eversholt Street, where representatives of the three main parties represented in Camden Council were invited to commit themselves to action in support of four priority concerns:
the development of Safe Hubs, in co-operation with the traders, at Euston Station, King’s Cross and Camden Town;
Support for the London Living Wage from Camden’s top 20 employers, including the proposed new Google HQ, as well as Camden Council itself and its contractors;
Support for the Social Care Charter, a code of practice for care providers and commissioners;
Mitigating the effects of HS2.
At both meetings it was apparent that North London churches had had a significant impact on the identification and articulation of these issues. Our own Social Action Working Party can take particular credit for the development of the Social Care Charter, which includes such elements as giving care workers enough time with each client, and paying them the London Living Wage, including travel time. At the Citizens Assembly, each of the priority topics in turn was put firmly but politely to the politicians and HS2 representatives, who recognised the strength of our collective voice, and were for the most part prepared to make the commitments asked of them.
As members of North London Citizens, Hampstead Parish Church will continue to monitor all these important issues, making our voice heard with others, and holding our local Council to account.