About CUF
The Church Urban Fund was set up as a response to the "Faith in the City" report, produced by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas in 1985.
We have been working in communities for more than 30 years, building partnerships with local people, groups, businesses and organisations.
We went through a period of significant change between 2012-2015, moving from being primarily a grant giving organisation into being a development agency that is working through the Church of England’s local parish networks, with churches and alongside other faith-based and secular organisations, national and local government, charities and foundations, as well as individual supporters, to bring about positive change in communities.
We have three core organisational streams, that have mobilised in this difficult time delivering vital frontline support in our communities.
The Together Network, is a union of 21 faith-based partnerships across England, driven by the desire to tackle social inequality across England. We respond to local issues, supporting and helping communities to tackle the things that matter most to them.
Near Neighbours helps people make diverse communities stronger. By encouraging people to get to know each other, work together, build relationships of trust and improve their neighbourhoods.
Just Finance Foundation, we want to create a fair financial system for everyone. A system that is easy to understand, accessible and available to all.
Bishop Adrian Newman
The Rt Revd Adrian Newman is CUF’s ‘Bishop In Residence’, a title constructed with the aim that he will support CUF in a range of ways to help the Charity as it develops a refreshed role in church and society over the coming years
+ Adrian did an economics degree back in the 1970s and worked in industry as an economist for a few years before being called to ordination. He was a curate in Forest Gate (East London) in the mid-80s, and then Vicar of an outer-estate church in Sheffield for 7 years. In 1996 he was appointed Rector of St Martin in the Bull Ring, in the centre of Birmingham, and led the redevelopment of St Martin’s as the Bull Ring was demolished and rebuilt around it. Then in 2004 God had one of his little jokes – as a parish priest he had been a critic of cathedrals, so he had to laugh when he was asked to become Dean of Rochester. And in 2011 he became Bishop of Stepney and returned to his beloved East End until he took early retirement at the end of 2018.
The main emphasis of ministry for +Adrian has always been justice, peace and social transformation in urban areas – he was part of the generation of priests hugely influenced by “Faith In The City” in 1985, and he continues to be motivated by a vision of ‘the city which is to come’. Since 1985 we have witnessed the increasing suburbanisation of the church, but he continues to believe that the health and vitality of the church will always be propagated in an urban environment, which is why – despite living in the country for the first time in his life – he remains connected with urban issues and ministry.