Church Commissioners written question – answered at on 28 November 2011.
To ask the hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church Commissioners are taking to encourage churches to form closer links with their local communities.
The Church has two new initiatives which it has launched recently; the first is a research project into new mission projects. The Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners have distributed £1 million as part of a nationwide move to help develop successful church growth projects in deprived areas. The £100,000 grants have been distributed to 10 projects across nine dioceses where existing activity has a proven track record of growth. The funds are part of a wider research and development programme, a key aim of which is to ensure projects are evaluated to provide evidence of what is proving effective.
A further £2 million in grants is being distributed next year. This overall £3 million for developing church growth in deprived areas is part of £12 million set aside by the Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners for research and development work in 2011-13 and is in support of the strategic goals set out by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his November 2010 Presidential Address to the new General Synod.
The Church Commissioners and Archbishops' Council have for many years earmarked money specifically for mission development; while the details of this funding stream are new, it is part of the continuing commitment to ensure that the money generated by the historic endowment of the Commissioners is available to meet ‘opportunity’ as well as ‘need’.
Projects awarded funding for developing church growth in deprived areas (October 2011)
Diocese of Birmingham: A proposal to train Mission Apprentices combining structured training and mission experience in deprived parishes.
Diocese of Bradford: ‘Sorted’ Youth Evangelism Project—development of an existing successful youth evangelism project working with multi-cultural communities in deprived areas.
Diocese of Canterbury: ‘Ignite’ Project, Cliftonville—employing a missioner to replicate an established model of community ministry from a deprived neighbourhood into another area.
Diocese of Coventry: Mission Leadership—training and mentoring of young mission leaders, based in deprived parishes showing good levels of growth.
Diocese of Leicester: Eyres Monsell and New Parks Parish Development Project—a proposal to augment existing growth, using mission workers to help develop lay ministry in two Anglo-Catholic parishes with very high levels of multiple deprivation.
Diocese of Liverpool: Liverpool Cathedral Mission Project—using the Cathedral as a resource to support the replication of two, currently Cathedral-based, examples of Fresh Expressions into deprived parishes.
Diocese of Liverpool: St Andrew’s Clubmoor Mission Development—part-funding two posts to further develop mission and counselling work in an existing community and missional project with high levels of outreach into very deprived neighbourhoods.
Diocese of London: St Francis Dalgarno Way—development of mission activity in a fast-growing church plant through employment of a worker, targeting children and families in a deprived area with a high proportion of young people.
Diocese of Sheffield: Pioneer Mission Training—funding for pump-priming training and bursaries for pioneer missioners in very deprived parishes.
Diocese of Worcester: St Barnabas Worcester, Tolladine Mission—scaling up a successful existing project based around a mission community in an area with pockets of exceptional multiple deprivation, by employing a mission leader full-time.
The Second initiative being the Near Neighbours project which is being administered by the Church Urban Fund in association with the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Near Neighbours aims to bring people together in communities that are religiously and ethnically diverse to foster greater understanding, build relationships of trust and working collectively to improve the local community.
This will be achieved by building on work already undertaken by churches and other faith groups through the twin streams of Social Action and Social Interaction. The projects are working collaboratively with the Christian Muslim Forum, the Hindu Christian Forum, the Council of Christians and Jews, the Nehemiah foundation, the Feast and Catalyst. The main focus for this work being in the cities of Leicester, Bradford, Burnley, Oldham, Birmingham and London. I have placed more information about the Near Neighbours project in the Library.
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