Our history as a non-denominational Christian charity devoted to eliminating housing poverty, our ethos and our commitment to helping everyone achieve a decent standard of living means that faith groups play a big part in helping us to achieve our objectives.
Father Peter Morgan of Our Lady & St Bernard RC Church with HPBC chair Canon Shannon Ledbetter
We welcome home partners, volunteers and supporters of all faiths and no faith to join us in creating high quality affordable homes. The land for our Kingsley Road project was donated to us by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Father Peter Morgan of the neighbouring Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernard has been a key supporter.
Volunteers from the Emmanuel International Church (EIC), Paris in 2012
Among those who’ve made a major contribution to our Kingsley Road project is the Emmanuel International Church (EIC) in France, who first visited us in 2012 and returned in 2014 for a second, extended teambuild. EIC is an inter-denominational church situated in the western suburbs of Paris. It has an average attendance of 200 people each Sunday morning for worship in English and the congregation is made up of mainly ex-patriots from around 25 different nations.
Gospel concert with EIC and home partners during the church's 2014 visit
During their 2014 teambuild, around 14 members of the congregation spent a week in Liverpool helping to build our homes, including installing the weatherboarding to one of our latest blocks. During the evenings they held a series of gospel workshops initiated by one of our home partners, Stephanie Pitchers, culminating in a gospel concert at St Margaret’s C of E Church in Princes Road, Liverpool, which brought together several of our home partners and members of the EIC group.
Students from Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda (The College for Islamic Knowledge and Guidance)
We’ve also had 13 students from Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda (The College for Islamic Knowledge and Guidance), in Blackburn, spend a day helping to build our homes. Talha Ahmed said later: 'It was a really enjoyable and enriching experience, staff and volunteers made us feel right at home and the feedback from my students was overwhelmingly positive. We were very impressed with the potential benefits of different faiths and cultures working together to build a safe and cohesive community.'
Shannon Ledbetter with home partner Joyce Wong
Our Kingsley Road project also featured as a case study at the major national conference organised by Together for the Common Good: Christian Collaboration for Social Justice (T4CG), in September 2013. The conference ‘Understanding how faith-based collaboration can work best for the common good’ was held at Liverpool Hope University.
Home partners and volunteers, our Chair, Rev Canon Dr Shannon Ledbetter, and our patron Lord Alton all took part in a seminar at the House of Lords, which highlighted the persecution of Christians in some countries of the world and the challenges faced by those who come to Britain as asylum seekers. The seminar was organised by Shannon in her role as Community Canon of Blackburn Cathedral.