Four Wheaten Loaves

It was John Skeete who started the whole thing off, four hundred years ago, when he left £140 in his will for the purchase of land near Kingston-uponThames, the income from which was to be used to buy food for the parish of Leatherhead. This food was distributed every Sunday morning, outside the Parish Church, after Morning Service. Some of that land is still owned by the Trustees of Leatherhead United Charities today.

After John Skeete came others like: Henry Smith, Edward Hudson, Elizabeth Rolfe, John Sandes and Richard Toye. Some of these are commemorated on memorial plaques around the Parish Church and on the charity boards currently housed in the Ringing Chamber in the church tower.

Here are some extracts from those boards:

To begin with, these charities were administered separately by the vicar and churchwardens of the Parish. Churchwardens in those days had a civil as well as an ecclesiastical role. It is in token of this that, strictly speaking, they they are still elected annually by any and all residents of the parish, not just church members, at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting.

What has happened over the last 100 years has been a move away from church based administration. Local government developed and Leatherhead United Charities came into being to administer all the charities concerned as one.

Trustees are now appointed in part by the District Council, but the church is also represented by the vicar for the time being, who is ex officio. I firmly believe that the church should be involved up to the hilt in the life of the community. Churches do not exist for themselves and the interest of their members alone, but to be in partnership with the local community and in service to others.

Today, Leatherhead United Charities manages alms houses, makes grants and gives pensions to local people who live within the former Leatherhead Urban District. A great deal of the United Charities Trustees' work in recent years has been given to adding to the number of alms houses and upgrading those that already exist. It is the Trustees' intention to serve the residents by providing suitable accommodation for their needs, at a reasonable rent and to a good standard. To this end, residents of alms houses very much pay their way and enable Trustees to provide and maintain accommodation in their care.

After 400 years it is perhaps worth asking what place is there for charity today? Is there still a real need? There are certainly some things charities have to avoid. They have to avoid being "do-gooders" or "Lord and Lady Bountiful". Paternalism and deference are rightly out. Charities also have to avoid being taken for a ride. One of the things the United Charities Trustees have to do when considering grant applications is to establish the bona fide nature of the request. In this we are grateful to health visitors and others who have hands-on knowledge to support applications.

But even given this filtering process, it is clear to the Trustees that there are local people who are "poor" by today's definition. In particular, some pensioners and some single mothers. They give a lie to the fact that no-one is poor in Britain today, or that the benefits system meets what need there is, or that it is simply used by scroungers. For some single mothers there is a lamentable lack of support from fathers. So in this sense there is a role for local charities and in such a way that seeks to help people retain their dignity. So, yes, charity properly administered and directed still has a place in modern society.

There is another role, too. The market economy, or capitalism, is the most successful economic model the world has known. So much so that almost all countries of the world have now adopted this by way of business in some shape or form. But as a former Tory prime minister once famously said: "there is an unacceptable face to capitalism". It is possible to say that without in any sense criticising good private companies, who must make a profit if they are to stay in business. But the unacceptable face shows itself when the bottom line becomes the only business ethic, or, corruption and self-interest raise their heads.

Governments also get tarred with the brush of self-interest and sometimes corruption. Whatever colour a government is, it is sadly sometimes easy to accuse it of acting for the good of its supporters rather than for the good of all. So, the place charities have alongside the public and private sectors might be this: charities represent disinterested service. They, by law, cannot serve themselves. They can only serve the needs of others. In that way they champion the cause of public service. Public service without self-interest or an unacceptable face.

One of the most famous passages of the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. In the Authorised Version we read: "If I have not charity, I am nothing. Charity suffereth long, is kind, vaunteth not itself. Faith, hope and charity abideth but the greatest of these is charity". Modern versions of the Bible render charity as love. The point is well made. Charity is an act of genuine disinterested love.

Charities today hold up the banner of service. Not exclusively but distinctively. Many in the public and private sectors do the same but of late it has been easy for them to lose their sense of service, because of the pressure they are under, or, because they are simply working to their own ends.

Charities can be free of these and so have a better chance of displaying those qualities of service which are so important to the human spirit. They show us what being human at its best can be. Contrary to popular belief, human fulfilment isn't to be found in accumulating to ourselves, but in giving away to others. Difficult as that is to live by, we rightly admire those who achieve it: Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa or countless unknown people who have selflessly put their families and their communities before themselves. Sometimes they have done this through local charities and sometimes by simply showing charity by extending genuine love and concern to people in need.

On this basis we need more charities, not less. They stand for, and stand up for, community well-being and service is at the heart of what they do. When that is achieved we become a more humane society and we hold up a model of what being human is at its best.

So as well as still being able to offer practical help to people in need, charities also have an important role as custodians of idealism and service. It is this, which motivated John Skeete and others all those years ago, and it is these for whom we give thanks today.

Canon David Eaton
Incumbent. from the Apr 2008 magazine

The above is an extract from an address given by David Eaton at the Leatherhead United Charities 400th anniversary service at the Parish Church on Sunday 9th March 2008.

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