The contributory principle: everyone can do something for others

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Our church runs a weekly drop-in meal called The Vine where we welcome a whole range of different guests. Some are homeless, many are vulnerable and lonely, and everyone seems to appreciate the fun, food and friendship we share.

Last Wednesday was a great evening with the whole church building buzzing with life. The young people’s group was also meeting upstairs and in the sanctuary musicians were rehearsing. Some of our guests wandered in to have a listen.

Tidying up

After we have eaten a meal together and said a closing blessing, we encourage everyone to help tidy up, pack up the tables and stack the chairs.

I had just got out the vacuum cleaner when I saw one of our guests standing close-by. So I said to him, ‘You can do some vacuuming can’t you?’

He looked a bit surprised and looked around to see who else was available. But then he said, ‘Well…yeah OK’. I thanked him and he started hoovering the floor.

Serving

I went down to the kitchen to help with the washing up and when I got back, he had done a very thorough job and all the biscuit and cake crumbs had disappeared. He was winding the cord back around the hoover and I said ‘Brilliant – thanks so much!’.  He straightened up, put his hand on my shoulder and said:

“Thank you Jon. I thank God that he has enabled me to serve him tonight.”

In many ways this was no big deal and it only took 10 minutes of his time. But I felt the exchange embodied something important.

Two way relationships

In an environment like The Vine, it can easily slide into a ‘service-provider’ mindset, a one-way exchange where volunteers are busy in their ‘service’ of the vulnerable. But this approach does not develop the relational community we want. 

I always say to our host volunteers that they really have one job: to chat to guests. Nothing else is as important as making an authentic human connection. And its because talking, playing games, eating and praying together two-way activities. Our goal is not to serve a certain amount of meals but to build relationships.

And whatever their needs or complexities, every single one of our guests has something to offer: we don’t want them to be passive recipients but to be part of a community. And this involves making a contribution.

Digging a deeper hole

This matter was a key theme of a lecture I had given the night before at Leeds Minster on the theme: Prophet or Provider? How do we speak with a prophetic voice for change whilst also helping those on the margins. It’s a critical question at this time of deepening poverty and increasing discontent in our country.

Among other elements, I spoke about my concern that too much Christian social action has become a one-way exchange where armies of well-meaning middle-class people distribute resources which can deepen dependency and disempower people. We have to avoid inadvertently digging a bigger hole for the people we seek to serve.

Subsidiarity

Catholic Social Teaching has a lot to offer.  As well as the principle of solidarity with the poor, there is the principle of subsidiarity – that responsibility is taken at the appropriate level, empowering people to help themselves. As Pope Benedict XVI put it:

‘Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person…[which]… respects personal dignity by recognizing in the person a subject who is always capable of giving something to others.’

‘The contributory principle‘

And I think the best models of help have reciprocity at their heart. I never hear people say ‘My life changed when I turned up to a church and they gave me a bag of free stuff’ but I have met countless people be transformed by participating in community.

This is the contributory principle: all forms of social action should empower beneficiaries to contribute to their own welfare and to help others. This is important because people are not transformed primarily through just what they are given, but through what they participate in and contribute to.

Truth which liberates

As well as speaking truth to power, we also need to speak truth to people who have very little power. Not a truth which condemns, castigates or controls but a truth which can empower them to experience community, dignity and liberation. A truth that can set them free.

Everyone feels good when people express gratitude for what we have given them. But its even better when what we do prompts someone to say:

“I thank God that he has enabled me to serve him.”

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If your church runs a social action project or community initiative, how much is the ‘contributory principle’ a part of it? Why not circulate this article to volunteers to discuss this more?

Full text of the lecture: Prophet or Provider?Being a voice for change whilst meeting the needs of people at the margins