News by email Donate

Suggestions

Top Stories

Most Read

Popular Videos

c-of-e-church-plant-main_article_image.jpg
C of E Twitter
UK News

Church of England to spend £27m on new churches

by Tola Mbakwe

The Church's ambitious growth programme hopes to revive the Christian faith in coastal areas, market towns and outer urban housing estates.

Ten dioceses including Bristol, Ely, Exeter and Canterbury will receive funding.

Rt Rev Trevor Willmott, the Bishop of Dover represents the Canterbury dioceses and told Premier the Church is putting its money where its mouth is.

"The Church is always called to reach out, meet God's people and share with them the life changing faith of Jesus Christ," he said. "Today that's what the Church of England is saying. We're putting our money where our mouth is. We're saying we're going to use the money that God has given us to do God's work."

In Canterbury for example, the project aims to create nine new worshipping communities based on on the model of Ignite, a church gathering in cafes which aim to reach marginalised and deprived communities.

Ignite offers an unconditional welcome to all and weekly meetings involve food and a magazine-style service based around short interactive activities and input exploring a Christian theme.

Bishop Trevor told Premier it's all about building relationships.

"Upon building relationships you can start to build your faith. It's not about great campaigns, it's not about great statements. It's getting alongside people, becoming friends and then you can work on that."

Most Rev Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury said the plans are a "wonderful example" of how churches are seeking to be faithful to God and to serve their communities.

He said: "The Church of England exists to share the good news of Jesus through our words and our actions. Across the country, churches are bursting with life which in part is shown through how they love and serve their communities. I'm especially pleased about these grants because they demonstrate our commitment to following Jesus to the places of greatest need in our society."

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

A Monthly Gift Of $11 Makes A World Of Difference

In a world of fake news there’s never been a greater need for quality Christian journalism. Premier’s mission is to provide the Church with the most up to date and relevant news, told from a Christian perspective. But we can’t do it without you.

Unlike many websites we haven't put up a paywall — we want to keep our journalism free at the point of need and as open as we can. Premier’s news output takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. No one in the USA is sharing news like we are across radio, magazines and online so please help us to continue that today.

For a monthly gift of $11 or more we’d also be able to send you a free copy of the brand new Premier Bible, a wonderful Anglicised version of the NLT packed with exclusive bonus content, reading plan and resources to help you get the most out of scripture.

Your monthly support will make a world of difference. Thank you.

Support Us
Continue the conversation on our Facebook page

Related Articles

Sign up to our newsletter to stay informed with news from a Christian perspective.

News by email

Connect

Donate

Donate