Our Inclusive Christian Ethos
WLM’s Social Work is rooted in its Christian ethos. Since 1887, our work has embodied the distinctive Methodist emphasis of socially engaged and transformational service. This heritage is something we are proud of and we want to celebrate the prayers and practical support that the church continues to support us with.
Many organisations who are working with homeless and vulnerable people have a Christian background. However, rather than seeing this simply as something historical, we believe that it is dynamically relevant to our work today. Across social care there has been for many years a concern that services are ‘holistic’ and there is growing understanding of how spiritual needs are supported. At WLM, we believe there are strong connections between best practice in contemporary social work and our Christian ethos and are committed to an on-going engagement between the two.
We are committed to an inclusive Christian ethos and offer our services to all people regardless of their belief. We cherish the fact that WLM is a mixed community made up of people with a wide range of beliefs. All the staff and volunteers at the West London Mission respect the Christian ethos in which our work and values are rooted.
On a practical level, we will be developing our chaplaincy service within the mission – to provide spiritual and pastoral support to our services in an appropriate and thoughtful way. We will be building on our own experiences as well as learning from others about how to integrate more effectively our Christian ethos within the professional services that we run.
West London Mission is a signatory to the Charter for Christian Homelessness Agencies