Loneliness

Loneliness can strike anyone, at any stage of life, and has a negative impact on both mental and physical health. You can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely, if you lack meaningful connections. It's been helpful to have the stigma surrounding loneliness challenged in recent years with work from the Campaign to End Loneliness and the Jo Cox Foundation. It's OK to not be OK and it's OK to admit that we feel lonely. But what can we do to combat the loneliness that is so prevalent in society? 
Loneliness can be devastating:
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‘The effect of a lack of social relationships on length of life is similar to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.’ 1
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Yet as Christian communities we can all be part of the solution.

Love Your Neighbour

These famous words of Jesus encapsulate the mandate of every Christian to work towards a more integrated and connected society. If we all loved our neighbour, loneliness would not be the epidemic that currently permeates so much of society.
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The Church - a diverse community

The church is a diverse community, a family, a place where people can discover a sense of belonging. There are over 50,000 churches across the UK, in almost every community, and many are already running activities to encourage connection and community. With loneliness and isolation exacerbated by the pandemic this is more important than ever.

Christians Together against Loneliness

We are a group of Christian organisations working to combat loneliness. We want to inspire, equip and mobilise churches and the individuals in them to alleviate the loneliness in their local communities. We all have a part to play.