Remembering ACRE from its birth.
By Jeremy Martineau chair from 1987-90
Like others who have written their memoirs about how they got involved in rural affairs and the work of ACRE and the RCC movement.
I was born and brought up in a rather special village in Lincolnshire – Woodhall Spa, population of about 1300 with its own Urban District Council, a train service to Kings Cross and splendid golf course – now the home of England Golf and of course a Spa which meant we had several high class hotels and motor cars for the well off. Evacuated during WW2 to make room for Air Force personnel my early childhood was in Ingleton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Countryside, whether wooded, arable or sheep country was in my blood. These strands came together when, as an ordained Anglican priest I was invited to be the first chaplain to agriculture in the Diocese of Carlisle, most of Cumbria.
During my seven years in that post I encountered the field officer for Voluntary Action Cumbria and was impressed by the community skills she had. I also met and recruited David Heritage of CoSIRA to the diocesan rural group and John Dunning too, the founder of that unique and impressive privately owned motorway service station at Tebay. More of John later.
On moving to the Bristol Diocese with a hybrid industrial and rural responsibility I quickly found myself filling a gap as chair of the Avon Rural Community Council. What a splendid small staff team we had with Alan Leavitt, formerly of the Department of the Environment, as deputy chair and Judith Graham Jones as Director. As with other RCCs we trialled all sorts of projects, servicing village halls, running our own Youth Training Scheme, campaigning for rural issues in a predominantly urban authority. I was simultaneously on the executive of Wiltshire RCC with Peter Newell and led the formation of the Wiltshire Rural Housing Association. An ally in North Wiltshire was Glyn Evans, one-time vicar of Lacock, the National Trust village. He went on to greater things and retired recently as rural officer for Oxford Diocese and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire as well as a Director of the Farming Community Network.
As agricultural chaplains we formed an effective team across England. On one occasion we were gathered in Kent, the night before crossing into mainland Europe for a study tour. It was the evening that news of the great Ethiopian famine broke. Two of our number had been working in Africa and knew what response was needed from the EEC. When we met the Commissioners next day they benefitted from our advice and immediately awarded many €million, while our home teams responded with equal speed; our Bristol team had 10 tons of grain on a plane that day direct to Addis Ababa. I was later to be involved with the European Churches Group in contributing to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
The Churches’ network can work with great speed when the challenge comes – see later in 2001.
The creation of ACRE was brought about, as I recall, by David Clark who involved a number of us in discussion with NCVO about removing its rural department to form a new and independent body. Others will have better memory, and I must apologise for not keeping my own records of these events. How was I appointed chair following Alan Rogers I don’t remember. My life has been a series of fortunate accidents like that. What I do remember was the appointment of Malcolm Moseley. After the formal interviews I asked the office staff what their impression of the candidates was. They all agreed with the panel that Malcolm was the right person to be Director. And so he was. He has drawn on the annual reports for his years as Director, and I cannot add much to them, except to say it was a great privilege for me to serve the RCC movement and to work with the staff team which excelled in every way. I found in the many visits to RCCs how closely the rural church was a partner to the cause of wellbeing of rural people, although too often an invisible partner. There has often been a resistance in people of faith in showing and sharing that faith as the motive that leads them in particular causes. This shyness and caution has contributed to the secularisation of our society which is not a move that gives me a warm glow. The Christian faith and its churches have contributed much to the betterment of life for many, particularly the weakest, and society is the poorer if the church loses its place in community life; particularly is this so in rural areas. Here the presence of a house for a minister, a school for all children and a church for worship, often accompanied by a hall for community meetings have been the main planks in a strategy of serving all the people throughout their life. The current presumption in public bodies against helping support this infrastructure has been unnecessary and unfortunate.
In 1988 I was called by the Archbishop of Canterbury to be a joint secretary of the Church of England’s Commission on Rural Affairs (ACORA). Under the lead of Lord Prior we set about assembling the members who would visit every diocese in England and make report under the terms of reference:
- To examine the effects of economic, environmental and social change on the rural community.
- To describe the changing nature of the Church in the countryside.
- To examine the theological factors which bear upon the mission and ministry of the Church in rural areas.
- In the light of the above, to make recommendations for consideration and action.
As well as representatives of the other denominations we were blessed with the full involvement of Patricia Batty Shaw (RDC), John Dunning, Robin Grove-White (CPRE), Brian McLaughlin (NFU) and Alan Rogers. So the RCCs and ACRE had a great contribution to this Commission. Its report, “Faith in the Countryside”, published in 1990 was gentler than its urban equivalent so was not branded as Marxist, but it remained for 20 years a foundational document in forming church policy.
One of the report’s 47 main recommendations was that General Synod should budget for a full time officer to take forward the report and its findings. So the next 13 years of my life were shaped by a move to the Arthur Rank Centre at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.
The Arthur Rank Centre came into being in 1972 to provide a permanent church presence on the site of the Royal Show. It was named after the benefactor, Lord Rank, who had been President of the Show. The agricultural chaplains and rural officers of the denominations had seen it as a common resource for their work throughout the country. It was the base for many new initiatives. During my thirteen years 1990-2003 it saw the foundation of the Church Tourism Association, Farm Crisis Network (later to be become Farming Community Network), further development of major training programmes for leaders of rural churches and the ARC Addington Fund. This Fund was established within 48 hours of the first notification of Foot and Mouth in Northumberland and it focused the charitable response to the outbreak bringing in over £6m in a very few weeks for rapid disbursement to farmers and others in distress. Money was made available through the network of rural clergy and NFU secretaries, often in cash to avoid banks swallowing the donation. Later it was said that the only body that emerged with any credit from the Outbreak had been the Church.
Another project was Rural Churches in Community Service, using £2.5m from the Millennium Commission to adapt typical rural churches to provide for community activities. Thus were 99 (not quite the 100 target) churches provided with kitchen, toilet and space for new community activities, with each community finding the rest of the funding to a total of some £7.5m. This move encouraged many others to make space in churches for a wide range of community activities – shops, youth work, police stations, Post Offices as well as general community activities. A great way to ensure the heritage buildings keep their original purpose as places for the community.
The network of diocesan rural officers was encouraged to get close to their RCC as this natural partnership strengthens the resources available for rural communities that are always vulnerable to being neglected in an increasingly urban society. As I write this at the end of 2021 many rural churches face an uncertain future, not least as the Church of England turns its attention to church growth at selected centres.