The major contribution made by thousands of faith communities to Welsh society is to be quantified in the nation’s first faith audit. The audit, “Counting for our communities,” will survey the voluntary work carried out by faith communities for the benefit of people outside their congregations, assessing the economic value of this work. It will also look at the use made of their buildings, the aspirations of faith communities in this regard and the contacts they already have with government. The project, which aims to report back at the end of the year, is led by Evangelical Alliance Wales initiative Gweini—the Council of the Christian Voluntary Sector in Wales—in partnership with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), and is being backed by the Welsh Assembly. There are around five thousand faith communities in Wales. All faith leaders—including Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and other faith groups—are being approached to build up the sample frame for the project. Questions cover a range of topics including what activities are facilitated by the congregations, how they work with their local community and how many volunteers from the congregation are involved in running community projects. (Evangelical Alliance Wales)
