Big Society cannot be a cost-cutting exercise, says Archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury confirmed his support for David Cameron’s Big Society yesterday but warned that it should be more about generosity and “building up” others than simply cutting costs.

Addressing the newly elected General Synod, Dr Rowan Williams said he welcomed the Big Society and the “extraordinary opportunity” it offered to raise questions in the Church and wider society about character, virtue, generosity and justice.

He said society was calling out to the Church with “real urgency” and that an important part of its response to the Big Society would be to deepen its understanding of the Christian character and a life “well-lived” in relationship with the “generosity and self-forgetting” of God.

“Why is it that Christians live or tend to live or think they ought to live according to the standards of generosity and self-forgetting?” he said.

The Archbishop spoke of the Big Society as one of “men and women determined to enhance each other’s lives by building up their freedom to shape their future and their communal life with fairness and generosity; people for whom responsibility is not a grim and repressive word but a joyful acknowledgement of what we owe to each other”.

He welcomed plans to create a Big Society bank, saying that the Church’s experience with microcredit and microfinance organisations could “bear significantly” on how it might work in practice.

He said the Church would be looking for clarity in the coming months about how capacity is being built in light of the cuts laid down in the Coalition’s recent Comprehensive Spending Review.

He said there was a need for capacity to be built at every level but particularly in higher education, as he noted the “anxiety” many young people are feeling about their future.

“The Big Society cannot ever simply be a cost-cutting exercise,” he said.

The Archbishop went on to argue that the Coalition had a responsibility to promote the principles of the Big Society abroad as well as at home.

“The same imperatives, the same challenges apply globally,” he said.

“It is right in our society for local communities to have the capacity to shape the circumstances in which they live.

“It is right in our own society that citizens should be encouraged to profound generosity towards each other.

“What does that say about a global Big Society? It is indeed very good news that the Government has preserved its levels of aid to developing countries.”

The Big Society initiative received overwhelming support from Synod members following a debate yesterday although some echoed the Archbishop’s concerns surrounding cuts.

Mark Russell, head of Church Army, said that while he believed the Prime Minister was “sincere” about the aims of the Big Society, he felt others in the Government saw it more as a “smokescreen for cuts”.

He said that Christians had “not been taken seriously” by successive governments but that the Big Society offered a “new narrative” for the Church’s engagement with the Government.

Other Synod members spoke of the need to embrace the diversity of communities whilst also striking a balance between providing a service and retaining the Christian identity.

The Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres, said there was a need to expand the Church’s infrastructure and ensure that more churches were "properly equipped" to take part in the Big Society.

The debate concluded with Synod members giving their backing to a feasibility study to be undertaken by the Church in order to explore the options that could be used by dioceses seeking to make Big Society partnerships.