The effect of unemployment and poverty in rural communities will be the theme of a Church-led seminar this week.
Enterprise and economics expert Professor Brian Morgan of the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, will be the key-note speaker at the event on Friday (May 27) which is aimed at church leaders and organisations working in rural areas. He will set out the strategic overview of the economy, covering Wales as a whole as a context for then looking at the specifics of rural economic performance and challenges for the future.
The seminar is the fifth in the Church in Wales’ Rural Hub series, a programme of 10 monthly events, run in partnership with the Welsh Government and the Trustees of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS).
It will be chaired by Alun Evans, Chair of Council for the RWAS and there will be presentations from two guests:
- Euryn Jones, Head of Farm Services (Wales) Barclays Bank Rural Finance, who will talk about debt, loans to finance improvements, credit unions, loan sharks and the role of banks;
- Jill Gibson, Farm Crisis Network co-ordinator, who will look at the causes and symptoms of rural poverty.
Revd Canon Robin Morrison, Bishops Adviser on Church and Society, said, “For those of us in the church who care about the personal and social wellbeing of communities in Wales, it is sometimes true that we do not appreciate how significant the contribution of the economy is to people’s lives. The economy is the part of life least understood and from which the church is mostly absent. With Wales now facing serious economic challenges, however, it is important, that churches in rural areas are aware of the issues in order to do all they can to support the communities we serve.”
The Rural Hub seminar will take place on Friday, May 27, from 10.30-4pm at the Royal Welsh Showground at Llanelwedd.
