‘I tried to save lives in Uganda… but Britain’s poor need me more’ says missionary

When the Reverend Jenny Green walks the streets of Bradford’s notorious Faxfleet estate she never fears for her wellbeing.

In an area where crime is rife and vandalism, arson and fly-tipping are part of everyday life, Jenny is greeted with open arms.

Indeed, she can barely walk 100 yards without hearing calls of, “Morning, Jenny”.

The 62-year-old holds a unique position as community chaplain, a role that helps bridge the gap between residents and the local St Matthew’s Church, providing support for families in extreme poverty.

One of 15 UK-based missionaries from the Church Mission Society, she is doing a job that most would assume is needed abroad, not at home. 

But having spent 20 years working in Kisoro, Uganda, Jenny believes there are areas in the UK with even less hope than she saw in Africa.

While one-third of the population of Uganda exists on less than £1.50 a day, Jenny says that the tribal system (which is not without its problems) ensures that everybody has someone else looking out for them.

She believes that this sense of community spirit has been lost in the UK. “I’m aware of great poverty,” she says.

“And the poverty I see in Faxfleet is not just the poverty of no money. There is a poverty of hope, there is a poverty of spirituality and there is a poverty of community.

“It is not an easy place, partly because it is sort of shut off. There’s a lot of sadness there and a lot of goodness. There are so many people from different parts of the world that it makes it a very colourful place to live in lots of ways but that adds to its brokenness. 

“People don’t speak each other’s language or understand each other’s culture. So in a way they feel isolated. There are lots of issues down in Faxfleet and a lot of loneliness.

“One of the things I saw in Uganda was the extended family. People always had somebody they could turn to. Even the poorest.

“There are actually local bylaws that commit you to going to every funeral or helping when someone is sick. You have to, it is a community expectation. If you don’t do that there will be penalties.

“I think here in the UK you can access money. Clearly there’s poverty and a huge gulf between the haves and have nots but that has always been there. It is learning to find contentment that is important.

“It is not money that makes a difference really, it is people having a sense of hope, having a sense of community and a sense of belonging.

“I think because of this sense of belonging and community there is in Uganda, that they have something we haven’t got.” 

She adds: “The local government works very hard to try to create a sense of community, putting on street parties and things, but it takes more than that. It takes more than just putting on an event.

“When people are sitting behind doors living in fear it takes someone knocking on their door and that’s the great privilege that the Church has and that’s the wonder of my role.”

Jenny has helped many locals tackle their monetary poverty, too. She has worked with women living in tents, with families crippled by debts and with people who would have been homeless or without food if it weren’t for the help of Christian charities.

Choosing not to always wear her dog collar and to be called by her given name rather than the more formal “Reverend”, Jenny has blended in during her four years in Bradford.

But her life has been anything but ordinary. She grew up in rural Essex and left school at 14 after becoming very unhappy there.

When her cattle-herder father was promoted, he demanded that his employer give the tempestuous teenager his old job – one that she excelled at. Feeling that a caring role might be more rewarding, she trained as a nurse and later a midwife.

But in her early 30s she felt the call from God and trained in theology in Bristol. Jenny travelled to Uganda in 1994, a country she admits she wouldn’t have been able to point to on a map at the time, and she soon fell in love with the Ugandan people.

She risked her life to stay during the terrible Rwandan war, with conflict just miles from where she lived. During her time there Jenny saw sadness and fear in its most extreme form.

But she also witnessed how a community works together and how it can be changed by “progress”.

“When I first went to Uganda they had nothing. Roads were almost impassable, no electricity, no tap water. But at night something amazing happened. You could go outside and just see layer upon layer of stars. It was magic.

“Then around 2007 we got electricity and that was so exciting. It changed everything but not always for the good. We lost something. We lost sight of the stars. Sometimes when we gain something we also lose something.

“I think we have lost something here. Our dependence has shifted from one another to depending on systems. We have lost something precious. This is where I feel that as a Christian I can really make a difference because the Church still – broken and failing as it often is – has its eyes on the stars. We have a hope that goes beyond the darkness.” 

Jenny, whom some have described as having a heart as open as a hotel, adopted two Ugandan children and decided their needs would be better met if she moved back to the UK.

But when she was offered a posting in a leafy suburb she declined, wanting to be where she was most needed. No one really goes into Faxfleet, says Jenny.

Drivers whizz by on the busy Manchester Road without noticing the estate and the deep social problems that the people there are having to deal with on a daily basis.

To endear herself to the locals she began singing in the street as loud as she could to get people to come out from behind those closed doors.

Faxfleet is the oldest council estate in Bradford and the second oldest in the UK. But it not unusual: there are estates across the UK struggling with drugs, violence, lack of investment, overcrowding and dwindling services for local people.

Many in Faxfleet feel they have been abandoned, that there is little for bored teenagers to do and community bonds have long been eroded. 

Those who bought their council homes found their value has plummeted. People from every corner of the world now live here, providing issues with language barriers and cultural differences.

Doors remain closed as people prefer to keep to themselves but the mountains of rubbish around the estate – with the associated smell and vermin – cannot be ignored.

Susan Seekins has lived in Faxfleet for 10 years and says: “It is getting beyond a joke here. We try to keep helping each other but it is hard. Jenny makes a big difference. There’s no community spirit left. It’s all gone.

“No one wants to know each other, they hide behind their doors. If we had that back it would be a nice place to live.”

There are many residents who work hard to improve their area and St Matthew’s Church has a space called The Cube that can be used by anyone, religious or not, as a meeting area.

Jenny also heaps praise on the local mosque, which opens its doors to improve community cohesion. She’s modest about her own achievements though: “I’m a nobody in lots of ways. We don’t do this to make people come to church. I would obviously love people to find God but we work with all faiths and none.

“We don’t want to see people just existing but to see them thriving. The Church is about helping people find that fullness of life. And that’s what I love doing.”