Forty years ago, the Church of England published "Faith in the City"—a report that shook the establishment and put poverty at the centre of the Church's agenda. This February, General Synod returned to that question: what has changed? What still needs to change? And what is the Church's role in ending poverty in twenty-first century Britain?

The Church Urban Fund was there, and what they witnessed was more rigorous and more passionate than many expected. Speakers from across the country—urban and rural, north and south—shared moving accounts of what poverty looks like in their communities. They spoke of families choosing between heating and eating. Of communities hollowed out by decades of disinvestment. Of the Church as often the last institution standing in places where everything else has gone.

But the most striking theme was this: justice is not a zero-sum game. Progress on poverty does not come at the expense of other goods—it creates them. When a community is lifted out of poverty, children do better in school, health outcomes improve, crime falls, and social trust grows. The Kingdom of God is not a pie to be divided but a table to be expanded.

The debate also surfaced a challenge that CUF has been naming for years: the difference between working for communities and working with them. Asset-based community development—starting with what people have, not what they lack—was held up as a model that the Church is uniquely placed to embody.

The call from Synod was clear: action over words. The Church Urban Fund is ready to help churches answer that call.