Last summer we launched the TEAR Fund “Discovery Programme” here at Liberton Kirk – a programme designed to help churches serve their communities better. As you know, the key stages in the process are –
- researching the nature of our community,
- consulting with local agencies, (such as schools, GP Surgeries, Police),
- identifying the areas of need,
- matching these needs with what we can offer,
- devising an appropriate response.
This is not something we are doing alone. Through the BIG Idea, we have been meeting regularly with the leaders of the other churches, so that we can share out our findings and make sure there is no duplication in our responses.
In the Autumn we focused our energies on recognising and celebrating what we already do, and now we are moving into the second phase, which is to explore the underlying needs of our parish. This is something we will need everybody’s help with in the coming months. Ask yourself, “What are the needs of my community or neighbourhood, and what can I offer to help? To get us started, here are some interesting statistics from the latest census*.
If Liberton were a village of 100 people…
- 23 would claim their pension
- 4 would be in primary school; 6 would be in high school
- 21 would be aged between 25 and 44
- 16 of 100 households would be in rented accommodation
- 10 households would speak a language other than English in the home
- 78 would describe themselves as ‘White – Scottish’
- 10 would be providing unpaid care for more than an hour a week
- 5 would describe their health as bad or very bad
- 33 would say they belonged to the Church of Scotland
*More stats and analysis are available from the Church of Scotland Website –
see http://cos.churchofscotland.org.uk/docs/stats_for_mission/010056.pdf