Foot and Mouth reflections prompt new emergency response resource for rural churches
For many rural communities, the memory of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak remains vivid. The loss of livestock, the silence of locked farm gates, and the strain placed on families and businesses left a deep and lasting mark on rural life.
Among those reflecting on that period is Sue English, whose reflections recall not only the scale of the crisis, but the emotional and spiritual toll it took on farming families and those walking alongside them. Her words remind us that Foot and Mouth was not simply an agricultural emergency, but a profoundly human one, marked by grief, isolation, and long months of uncertainty.
Churches were often present in quiet, practical ways during that time, offering prayer, space, and companionship when usual patterns of community life were disrupted. Those experiences continue to shape how rural churches understand their role when crisis strikes.
In light of these reflections, The Arthur Rank Centre is highlighting a Rural Church & Community Emergency Response resource, developed by the Rural Methodist Circle. The resource is designed to help churches think ahead about how they might respond well when emergencies affect rural communities, whether through animal disease, extreme weather, serious accidents, or sudden loss.
Rather than turning churches into emergency services, the guidance encourages preparation, clear communication, and close working with local authorities and resilience forums, enabling churches to offer calm, informed, pastoral support when it is most needed.
The resource is freely available to download, and churches are encouraged to engage with it before a crisis arrives, not in the moment itself.
“I Am Vital”: A Reflection on Farm Safety and how churches can get involved
We recently became aware of a simple but powerful farm safety campaign being led by the National Association of Agricultural Contractors. Its central message, “I Am Vital”, resonated strongly with us, not least because rural churches and communities so often find themselves supporting families when accidents happen.
We invited Jill Hewitt, CEO of the National Association of Agricultural Contractors, to reflect on the campaign and to explore how churches and rural communities can help reinforce a culture of care, attentiveness, and shared responsibility across rural life.
“I Am Vital”: A Reflection on Farm Safety and Shared Responsibility
Jill Hewitt, CEO, National Association of Agricultural Contractors
There are few industries under the constant pressure faced by agriculture. Weather is unpredictable, prices are uncertain, labour is scarce, and crops and livestock require care every day of the year. For many farming families and contractors, the struggle to make the economics stack up is relentless. Alongside this sits an often hidden reality: isolation, long hours, fatigue, and little time for rest.
Yet alongside these pressures, the farming community continues to carry a deeply troubling burden. Agriculture has the highest fatal accident rate of any industry in the UK. Despite training, regulation, and the commitment of many individuals and businesses to work safely, the pattern persists.
Since 1 April 2025, twenty eight lives have been lost in accidents on farms. Three of them were children.
These are not abstract statistics. Each death represents a family shattered, a business disrupted, and a rural community left grieving. Churches, chaplains, neighbours, and friends often find themselves walking alongside those left behind, sharing in shock, sorrow, and unanswered questions.
No one begins the day expecting an accident to happen. Yet too often there is a quiet assumption that it will not happen to us. But it happens to someone. Again and again.
Many within the sector take safety seriously and work hard to protect themselves, their families, and those they work with. Yet there remains, in some places, a culture of unnecessary risk taking. Unsafe practices are sometimes ignored, excused, or even celebrated. This cannot continue. We cannot justify the ongoing loss of life by pointing only to hard work, time pressure, weather, or the realities of working alone.
When accidents happen, the consequences are profound. At best, someone may be left unable to work fully. At worst, families face bereavement alongside investigations and legal processes. Those who have lived through such moments know how quickly life can change, and how heavy the emotional, practical, and financial costs can be.
Safety is not about fear. But it does require thought, conversation, and action. It means talking openly about risk, planning work carefully, and supporting one another to make safer choices. Often this does not require expensive equipment or complex systems. It begins with mindset, awareness, and care.
Good safety practice means organising tasks well, using appropriate equipment, and ensuring that everyone involved is trained, competent, and confident in what they are doing. Cutting corners rarely saves time or money. In fact, safety mistakes almost always come at great cost. If we are trying to save time, energy, or resources, the safest route is usually the wisest one.
The National Association of Agricultural Contractors represents professional contractors working across UK farms. As part of its commitment to improving safety culture, the NAAC has produced a simple visual reminder: a sticker carrying the message, “I am vital to UK agriculture – Stay Safe!”
Stickers alone do not save lives. But they can prompt reflection. They can interrupt routine. They can remind someone, in a moment of pressure or fatigue, to pause and choose safety.
The campaign invites contractors, farmers, families, and the wider rural community to place these stickers where people naturally stop or hesitate: on quad bike helmets, PTO guards, workshop doors, ladder rungs, or tractor steps. Each placement creates a moment to think again. To slow down. To check a guard. To switch off a machine. To wear protective equipment.
The message is simple but profound. Every person working in agriculture is vital. Every life matters. Loss reverberates through families, businesses, rural communities, and congregations.
Early responses to the campaign have been encouraging. Stickers have been taken eagerly at meetings and events, and the message has resonated across generations. At the LAMMA show in January, the NAAC displayed a powerful memorial: two pallets holding twenty eight caps, each representing a life lost in agriculture since April. The silent display invited visitors to pause and reflect on the human cost behind the numbers.
That memorial spoke of grief. The sticker campaign speaks of hope. Hope that attitudes can change. Hope that communities can support one another. Hope that safety can be understood not as bureaucracy, but as an act of care for ourselves and for others.
Those who work in agriculture carry responsibility not only for their own safety, but also for colleagues, customers, families, and communities. Accidents often happen in moments of tiredness, stress, or routine. The NAAC’s campaign does not judge. Instead, it offers a gentle, persistent reminder that safer decisions are possible.
Partnership is essential if this work is to make a difference. By standing together, across farming, contracting, churches, and rural organisations, we can help create a culture where safety is talked about openly and acted upon consistently. Sometimes, a simple reminder at eye level can be enough to save a life.
How to access stickers
Stickers are available free of charge and can be ordered online via the NAAC website, where supporters can also find materials and ideas for promoting safety locally.
Order stickers at: https://www.naac.co.uk/naac-safety-campaign/
Foot and Mouth, memory and responsibility: a reflection from Cumbria
As we mark twenty five years since the Foot and Mouth crisis, we are sharing reflections that help us look back with honesty and look ahead with wisdom. In this piece, the Revd David Newlove reflects on the deep and lasting impact of Foot and Mouth in Cumbria, the resilience it demanded, and the continuing responsibility of church and society to learn from what was endured.
By the Revd David Newlove, Superintendent Minister of the Cumbria Circuit and Agricultural Chaplain
25 years on
Looking around our beautiful countryside in Cumbria today, with ewes in their inby ready for lambing, dairy herds in their daily milking routine and the hardier Belted Galloways out on the fells as part of regenerative grazing programmes. You could be lulled into a false sense that nothing has changed in generations.
But this year marks 25 years since the start of the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak in the UK and the catastrophic destruction this epidemic brought. I have to say that, in this county at least, it’s not an easy anniversary to speak of. The subject is only ever mentioned in Cumbria with caution and sensitivity. For, unless you know the person you are speaking to you cannot anticipate their reaction.
For some it was the devastating disease that in a hammer blow forced a change in their farming policy and practice that allowed the next generation to continue but for others (the majority) it was a cruel and catastrophic loss still felt a generation on. Ask a farmer who is always quick with their reply, and they might take a minute of silence before they can respond – eyes tear and throats dry.
And those who didn’t succumb to the virus will tell of their own hardship and difficulty coping through the isolation and lockdown with no recompense.
Of course it was not just the farmers.
The tourist industry was shut down, hoteliers, restaurants and shops suddenly found their diaries empty and the millions of tourists their business relied upon banished from the fells. It was a devastating time for all.
Our task today is two-fold. We need to hold this (almost sacred) story, helping those who have buried the pain so deeply to cope when life forces it to come out and to help next generations to understand what their parents and grand-parents went through and of the strength and resilience they found to cope with the crisis and aftermath – for that is their story too.
Secondly, we need to speak prophetically to government and policy makers about the real concern of a repeat epidemic. After 25 years and numerous reports and ongoing research we are still as vulnerable and susceptible today as a generation ago. Every successive government has failed to put in place the safeguards needed. And now, with constant reports of illegal meat being brought into our country and food system, unchecked and with no surety of it being disease free and government policy that drives towards larger and more intense agriculture we fear a repeat.
All this makes the 25th anniversary a hard topic to cover but let us not be silent in our responsibility.
For our prayers:
Creator God, you ordained that we care for all creatures and creation.
We lament the devastation caused by the 2001 Foot & Mouth epidemic – the loss of livestock and livelihood.
Forgive our inaction, when policy causes us to live lightly with our responsibility.
When our practice means that we show little reverence to your laws and the possible consequences.
Help us to live as you ordained, To care deeply and live well together
With all your created order, today and every day.
Amen
Listening to the Soil
Reflections on Listening to the soil
At The Arthur Rank Centre, listening sits at the heart of what we do. We listen to rural churches, to farming communities, and to the places where faith and daily life meet. From time to time, we encounter writing that helps us listen more carefully, and reminds us why attentiveness matters.
Here, we are grateful for the reflections of Tizz (Mark Tizzard), through his piece Listening to the soil. This is the first in a new series of seven reflections on the Parable of the Sower. It invites a slower pace, creates space to notice what is often overlooked, and takes seriously the quiet wisdom that emerges from lived experience of land and work.
Attentiveness in rural life and faith
Tizz’s reflections resonate strongly with the rhythms of rural church life. His writing encourages attention and careful observation. Soil is not treated as an abstract idea, but as something known through time, touch, and care. In this, it mirrors much of what rural ministry looks like in practice. Those serving rural communities will recognise this instinct, where presence and relationships matter deeply. Change is often gradual and shaped by trust rather than strategy. These reflections help articulate this way of being, and affirm its value at a time when speed and certainty are often too highly prized.
Listening as a way of discerning the Spirit
There is a gentle spirituality running through Tizz’s work. It is grounded in ordinary realities, and attentive to what is already happening. In listening to the soil, there is an openness to the movement of the Spirit within creation, work, and place. For the rural church, this will feel familiar, where faith is often expressed through faithfulness rather than visibility, and through care that unfolds over years rather than through programmes. Tizz’s writing offers language that helps name this experience, and reassures those who live and minister in this way that such attentiveness has depth and purpose.
A resource for reflection and encouragement
We are thankful for voices like Tizz’s, which offer space for reflection without rushing towards conclusions. His writing encourages thoughtful questions. What are we noticing in the places we serve? Where are pressures emerging quietly? What might need time, patience, or rest? These questions shape how churches pray, how pastoral care is offered, and how communities are accompanied through both change and continuity. They remind us that listening itself is an act of care.
We are grateful to Tizz for beginning to share his reflections, and for contributing to wider conversations about land, faith, and attentiveness in rural life. As this is the first in a series of seven reflections on the Parable of the Sower, readers may wish to follow the series as it unfolds over the coming weeks, and we commend Listening to the soil to anyone involved in rural church life, farming, or community leadership, and we give thanks for the way it helps us listen more carefully to the places and people entrusted to us.
Faithfulness so often begins by paying attention to what is already there.
Original article:
https://marktizzard.substack.com/p/week-1-listening-to-the-soil
Accessed: 10 January 2026
CW88 – Reconciliation: Nehemiah, rural ministry and reconciliation
By Revd Dr Susan Salt
At first glance the account of Nehemiah rebuilding the city walls of Jerusalem appears to have little in common with rural ministry in the twenty-first century.
However, biblical historian Lena-Sofia Tiemayer has suggested that by the second half of the sixth century, the city’s population were scattered throughout the countryside surviving on subsistence agriculture.
Many Jerusalemites had endured occupation, famine, and outbreaks of disease. Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Senior Lecturer of Hebrew Bible at Tel Aviv University, has said: “Land orientation underlies the entire process of intergroup negotiations among the three Judean groups: the exiles, the repatriates, and those who remained.”
A not dissimilar situation faces many modern rural communities, balancing the need for housing, agriculture, the need for sustainable use of land and tourism.
Nehemiah was trying to rebuild a scattered community at a time when there was considerable tension between the returning exiles and those who remained. Old Testament scholar David M. Carr points out that those who returned had a shared “communal near-death experience of diaspora living” making them distinct from the poor of the land who had remained. He goes on to say, “before exile they had been marked as special by high positions, by genealogy, and often literacy”. Now these formerly elite exiles “felt that their nation’s downfall and decades of exile had been caused by the failure of past generations to achieve the kind of purity they had come to value during exile.”
Nehemiah rebuilt a wall to create an exclusive enclave for those willing to accept the Torah and its teachings as a key part of their faith, and as a guide to the way the community should conduct itself from then on.
There is a sense of similar, if less clear cut, expectations placed on those moving into some rural communities. Many such communities have a strong sense of identity based on geographical location and genealogy, particularly around farming and land-owning families. Those core members of a community may struggle with the categorisation of insiders and outsider and how to define what is required to be considered a ‘member of that community.’ When that sense of identity is under threat, for example because of expansion in new-build houses, then it is relatively easy to see how inclusive groups form networks to maintain their exclusive claim on the place they live and the values they perceive are important to the life of the village.
Contemporary rural ministry has a key role in reconciling the ongoing tension around identity by considering people’s desire to protect the identity of their community, whilst discouraging the creation of walls that exclude those who call the community their home but are not considered an ‘insider.’ Rural ministers need to find ways of encompassing those who live within the community but hold different or even opposing views to those of the ‘insiders.’
Part of the solution, which is also one that Nehemiah used, is recognising the differing circles of engagement, and belonging. Unlike Nehemiah where those circles involved family and occupational links, in a modern rural community is more likely to come from community groups such as the village hall committee, school or the walking group.
Finding ways to inhabit and build bridges requires a ministerial presence beyond the walls of their place of worship and an ability to build connections.
CW88 – Reconciliation: Living out reconciliation for families
By Dawn Savidge, Messy Church trainer and families advisor for the Diocese of Leeds
Reconciliation; it’s such a powerful word. It is something that we try to teach our children from a very early age. But how do we model it in a world that is full of so many injustices, conflict and disagreements?
Just a few of the issues that have arisen over the past couple of years have been Brexit, COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.
The voices of hatred and discontent have risen up alongside a passion to make our world a fairer and more understanding place. It may seem that some of these issues are so far removed from where you are living.
One of the best things about Messy Church is that it is an intergenerational worship community. This might look like dozens of people meeting in a church building, it also might look like two families meeting in a home, having a meal together and looking at a scripture around activities, fun and prayer.
It gives us a chance to have honest conversations with people from different generations; to hear what affects our children and adults. Does reconciliation look generationally different and are there ways that we can help each other?
There are plenty of issues that impact rural communities; Brexit and farming are just two of them. Why not explore some of those with a Messy Church field trip? Can you relate what is happening in your community to a Bible passage?
Make sure you ask open-ended questions: What would Jesus do if he were here? How can the policy makers listen to people in communities like ours? What would you like to do to heal the community?
If you are living in an urban area which is rich in multi-cultural diversity, some of these topics will be easier to relate to. How can you engage with these issues in a rural context? Start by watching the news. I know it can sometimes be a bleak place, but it gives you a view of what is happening in the world outside of our communities.
In July 2021 we have seen a rise in the Black Lives Matter campaign in relation to the Euros and the hurt that has been caused. It is by knowing about things that are happening in the world that we can then look to our Bibles and see what God has to say about it.
Jesus crossed many cultural divides. He healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter (Mark 7). He told the story of the Good Samaritan and how a Jew was helped by a non-Jew (Luke 10). God gave Peter the vision for a new church that included Gentiles through the dream about what he could eat (Acts 10). He healed the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). The Bible has a lot to say about issues that we are facing today.
The coronavirus pandemic has reshaped our communities and heightened the existing needs of people. Families are barely surviving and not thriving, with a reliance on food banks, increased unemployment and worries about having enough money. Jesus loves the poor. He turned the world upside down. Why not look at the Beatitudes with your Messy Church?
Messy Church is a great way to explore what it means to be reconciled. Listen to the world, listen to the Bible and listen to each other.
CW88 – Reconciliation: Walk and pray, care and share God’s love this Christmas with the Oikos app
By Catherine Butcher, HOPE Together
During 2021 Christians all over the UK have been using the Oikos prayer app to track where they have walked and prayed for their communities. The app was developed in the USA and was launched in the UK by Hope for Every Home as part of their Prayer Walk 21 challenge.
The Oikos Outreach App allows you to tag where you have prayed, cared and shared the love of Jesus with people in your street, road, lane… it starts wherever you are. The tags are saved on the app. You can see where you have been and where others have prayed, cared and shared too.
As the year-long Prayer Walk 21 challenge comes to an end, Sammy Jordan, project leader for Hope for Every Home, said: ‘It’s not too late to become part of a movement trying to reach the whole nation for Jesus street by street, home by home… to the last home. Don’t worry if you’ve never prayer-walked before. There are many ways to do it and you can find your own. Think of it as praying whilst you walk…but it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open!
“You might want to pray for particular things you see on your walk – people and places. You might want to ask God to help you notice things as you walk and pray about them.”
In the run-up to Christmas 2021 you could also use the app to track where you have delivered HOPE magazines with invitations to your in-person and online church events during the festive season.
“Do what the Lord is telling you to do, and trust that he’ll bring fruit from the seed you’ve planted!” That’s the simple but beautiful attitude to mission from David Morgan, an 80-year-old from the village of Cookhill in Worcestershire.
Alongside fellow members of the congregation at Cookhill Baptist Church, in partnership with local Anglicans, David has been finding creative ways to reach out to the people in their village. “The big challenge is to bridge the gap between practical activity and the spiritual message underlying it,’ said David. ‘And how to communicate with folk around us, which are mainly those we meet on daily dog-walks!”
One way in which Cookhill Baptist Church has shared the good news with their village has been through the distribution of HOPE’s magazines. They gave away 1,000 copies at Christmas 2020, as a way of the church maintaining its focus on looking outwards into the community.
David has found that giving out the magazines is most effective when it’s done face-to-face. He described how he always tries to identify an article that he knows will connect with someone’s particular interests. For example, the church organised some Easter-themed activities for local families and used that as a chance to pass out copies of the 2021 undated edition of HOPE for All. David is hoping and praying that God will use them to touch hearts in his community.
The HOPE magazines are published by Hope for Every Home in partnership with HOPE Together. Copies of the latest magazine are available from the HOPE shop – www.hopetogether.org.uk/shop. There are also resources for children and toddlers, as well as video courses and other resources.
CW88 – Reconciliation: Bags of Blessing for isolating people during the pandemic
By Revd Sue Pegg MA Methodist Minister in West Yorkshire.
‘May the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord be kind and gracious to you;
May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace’
(Numbers: Chapter 6)
It began with a phone call from The Arthur Rank Centre office, offering a lottery grant to fund work by churches in rural villages which would help ease isolation and loneliness during the difficult days of the pandemic.
At the time of the call the nation had been in lockdown for many months and despite making half a dozen phone calls a day to church and community folk, as well as embracing Zoom, I was becoming increasingly aware that many in our village communities were shielding in order to stay safe.
Being confined to their homes meant elderly folk were beginning to desperately miss the social contact usually enjoyed through various groups, coffee mornings and lunches. The offer of the grant money was a blessing as it had potential to ease their increasingly difficult situation.
Revd Val Keating, our local Anglican vicar, accepted an invitation to work together to reach as many folk as we could in the communities of five West Yorkshire villages, so we got together to share ideas.
Knowing that many were shielding and really missing family, especially their adult children and grandchildren, it seemed Mothering Sunday would be a good time to begin the work. Our first purchase was some small lace bags, like ‘favour bags’ often given to wedding guests. A lady in one village ran a local cottage business and made small decorative flowers from recycled plastic.
Thinking these would make ideal gifts we ordered 70 of them to put in the bags along with a Mothering Sunday greeting. Then, along with volunteers, the bags of blessing as we called them were delivered personally to those known to us who were feeling the pain of isolation as symbols of love and of hope. We were greeted with smiles and tears. The gifts seem to be very much appreciated.
The Mothering Sunday work encouraged us forward to an Easter project using similar bags. This time we wished people a Happy Easter with small chocolate eggs, a love heart, and an invitation to ‘Feel God’s love’. Once again there were tears and smiles and many stories about long hours spent shielding and in isolation. Eager to spread the love as much as possible, villagers from one church made a wooden cross and hooked some bags onto it. It was then placed outside church with an invitation to take a bag of blessing from the cross during the Easter weekend.
Despite the building being closed for services (which were currently held on Zoom) this enabled the church to reach out with love during the important Christian celebration.
We also delivered the Palm Crosses made by rural villagers in Africa, whose only source of income was from the crosses they made. It was a way of offering hope from one isolated community at the other side of the world to our local communities and it was felt a way both could receive God’s blessings.
The bags of blessing began to gain momentum and as a group of urban churches heard of our work in the countryside they too adopted the idea and as a result over 5,000 were distributed around our local town.
By Easter the pandemic was beginning to ease but it was noticeable that many, especially the elderly, and despite receiving Covid vaccines, were reluctant to leave their homes so we began praying about a way forward for the summer months where people could feel safe but also begin to reconnect with their friends.
To date the Rural Isolation Funding has enabled us to offer Gentle Exercise/ Pilates classes in two villages for eight two-hour sessions during the summer months. We hope the classes will entice people out of their homes to reconnect with others in the community in a Covid secure environment. The classes will run until early September when it’s hoped it will be safe for usual coffee mornings and lunch clubs to resume.
Our hope is that the Rural Isolation Grant used to finance the various aspects of the work has, in small ways, helped to elevate loneliness and isolation during the dark days of the pandemic to those living in the local villages and offered them peace and love. The bags of blessing certainly brought a smile to faces and perhaps, in the words of the Psalmist (Psalm 34) enabled some to ‘taste and see that God is good’ amid their suffering.
We pray that the exercise classes will provide a crucial link between the pandemic and normality of life resuming.
Our thanks go to The Arthur Rank Centre for making the projects possible through Lottery funding.
CW88 – Reconciliation: Overcoming barriers across the Irish border
By Revd Dr Stephen Skuce, Methodist Church in Ireland Northwestern District Superintendent
What does reconciliation look like in a rural community that has been attacked for simply being the people we are? The answer is ‘complicated’.
The Northwestern district of the Methodist Church in Ireland includes the full border between the two jurisdictions, with about a quarter of our district in the Republic of Ireland. Most of the northern churches are fairly close to the border.
You will know perhaps of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb, and the Omagh bombing. Both included our members among the dead and injured. The Warrenpoint attack in which 18 soldiers died is at one side of our district and on the western edge of the district, Lord Mountbatten and three others were murdered. Dozens of our members have been killed and countless others attacked, threatened and so on. The memorial tablets in our border churches sometimes refer to 1914-18 or 1939-45, but all too often refer to those of us murdered far more recently.
That was then, but still also now. The long shadow of our history still affects us. Brexit and its clear implications significantly jeopardise peace. We want to move on, but Brexit pulls us back.
I currently live in Strabane/Lifford. The two parts of the town are separated by a river that is also an international border. Brexit has made that border harder again.
It’s hard to focus on reconciliation when you live near the border and experience systematic attacks over generations. We are far from claiming a monopoly of suffering. That is sadly a widely shared experience but is sharpened in rural areas where we know each other. We work with each other. We farm alongside each other, lend each other equipment and buy our livestock from each other.
We may be educated separately, largely socialise separately and follow some different sports, but we are neighbours. So, when we have been attacked, it was by those who live close by. We live beside neighbours who somehow saw nothing and knew nothing about an attack. These aren’t distant wars. This is over the hedge. Reconciliation is a decades long struggle.
Methodists have been outstanding in the search for peace. The work and price paid by Gordon Wilson after his injury and death of Marie, his daughter, in the Enniskillen bombing is perhaps well known. A Methodist minister, Harold Good, was one of two witnesses to the IRA’s decommissioning of their weapons and the UVF announced their ceasefire in a Belfast Methodist church.
We’re trying our best. On the same day as the Enniskillen bombing the border village of Pettigo/Tullyhommon was also targeted by a bomb aimed at the children gathering for the Remembrance Day parade at the Methodist church. That bomb failed to go off but the legacy of the attempted attack on the Protestant children of that community, all part of a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign, is hard. But today we enjoy a shared community building in the Methodist Church that is used by all.
The price of peace is very high. We have been required to let murderers walk free. We have to stop searching for justice and accept government from those who targeted us. We are willing to pay that price because we are Christian people of hope and a future. It will get better, although it’s not guaranteed. But it’s even harder to overcome barriers when you live on the border.
