News
HRH hosts a reception for church volunteers working with the Hope08 project
12th June 2008
The Prince of Wales today praised a church-led project which has seen hundreds of volunteers doing good deeds in communities across the country.
In a reception hosted by The Prince at Clarence House, His Royal Highness paid tribute to the organisers of the Hope08 initiative for their "devotion" and ability to motivate people to leave their pews and help those in need.
Hope08 is a campaign amongst Christians and churches in over 1400 locations across the UK.
The initiative encourages them to play an active role in 2008 in helping transform their communities and bring hope to those around them through a wide variety of activities such as clean-ups in parks to music projects set up in young offenders' institutions.
The unique project is supported by a cross-section of denominations, church groups and other organisations like police and local councils.
The Prince said: "I just wanted to say how full of admiration I am for all your extraordinary activities, your devotion and your ability to motivate other people."
"I do understand how difficult it can be in this day and age overcoming what I feel so often is rampant cynicism, which provides an enormous hurdle at the start.
"And I also have the feeling that there are an enormous amount of people out there who long to do more but feel terrified because they think they're going to be thought of as old-fashioned."
Joking, he added: "Don't worry I understand entirely."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who sits on the Hope08 board of reference, said a prayer blessing the initiative and those involved in it after he spent time chatting to volunteers.
Dr Williams said afterwards: "A lot of what's happening, just listening to the stories, is stuff that actually has been going on for quite a while.
"But, as churches get a bit smaller and public perception gets a bit more distant, it really helps to have something that focuses what churches can offer and I think that's what Hope is doing."
The idea for the Hope08 initiative came from the leaders behind two similar projects which were organised in Manchester and London in 2004.
The leaders of those initiatives decided to do something on a national scale and took the scheme forward and, today, more than 1,500 villages, towns and cities have signed up to the project.
Last month saw the Million Hours of Kindness initiative in which churches were urged to do good in the community, from donating blood to handing out chocolates in the street to make people smile.
The minister of an East End church described how he and members of his congregation got involved in Hope08.
The Rev Davey Johnson, of the Epainos Ministries in Mile End, described how he helped set up an outreach project to improve the lives of homeless people.
He said: "About the end of 2006, I got some inspiration that the church should do something in 2007 during the months when we had five Sundays.
"We decided to close down the church on the fifth Sunday and take the church on to the streets. We decided to go into the hostels and do something for the homeless and started providing services like massages and creative workshops."
He described how, when he heard about Hope08, he realised his own scheme mirrored the national project and he has now brought it under the UK-wide initiative.
Click here to read more about The Prince's personal faith.