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| About This Site |
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The information on this site is provided in good faith as guidance and stimulus to those involved in the Church’s strategy for new housing areas. No responsibility can be accepted for information which is inaccurate, and professional advice specific to particular places should be sought.
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| This section provides you with a useful set of resources. |
| Incarnate Network - resourcing church planting | 5th Mar '09 | 
Incarnate is a grass-roots network for church planting, emerging and fresh expressions of church. It is led by a team of practitioners with most of the 350 members living in the U.K. Alongside the grass-roots members there are regional gatherings for learning and support, day long events, and residential house parties.
View full details ... |
| Book Review : God and Community Cohesion | 5th Mar '09 | God and Community Cohesion: help or hindrance? Alan Billings
Alan Billings offers much more in this book than evident by the title. Helpful references to church attendance figures for example, and some major reports with comment and reflection, all add to this being a well researched, written and interesting read. Although not written for creating community in new housing areas, the general principles are relevant everywhere. The title not only very topical, but also political and highly charged. Masterfully, Billings gently leads us down a carefully considered path, with good evidence and clear thinking to help the reader consider thorny questions. Now you might expect a Christian leader reflecting on community engagement to answer the book title question with a general ‘yes’, but in this regard I was ready to read more about the how and where, and with what pitfalls or recommendations and resources were available. Maybe that is another book he could write? Certainly there is good stuff here, based on plurality, acceptance and mutual exchange.
Buy on-line |
| Book Review : Building Utopia | 5th Mar '09 | Building Utopia: Laurie Green and Christopher R. Baker
The clever title of this book works on different levels. Are we ‘Building Utopia’ when putting up new housing estates? Can utopia be found in a ‘Building’? Can regeneration produce a utopian community? This book explores these issues as it tries to address ‘seeking the authentic Church for new communities’. New communities in this context means housing and urban regeneration not Polish migrant workers. P117 interested me as I did not know that Utopia means ‘no place’ and the positive connotations came with the later alternative spelling ‘Eutopia’ meaning ‘good place’. The tension is explored in the text which leads to models and recommendations for different styles of church engagement in the new urban context. This book raises as many questions as it answers but I found it an interesting, helpful and clear read of some important contemporary issues.
View full details ... |
| Listening to the Pioneer Ministers in New Housing | 5th Mar '09 | | Those evangelists, church planters, missioners and church leaders living and working in new housing areas, were invited to lunch at Churches Together in England to speak about their experience. This report gives an overview of their stories and some of the common issues and opportunities identified. |
| Guidelines for a Single Congregation Partnership | 16th Feb '09 | | Want to know how you can work together as different churches on a mission project in a new housing area? This paper is the result of denominational reps coming together and working out Guidelines that churches and church leaders have already agreed to in principle. It should save some projects from re-inventing the wheel, and provide others with information that can start conversations and open doors. It gives different categories and sample text all in one short paper. John Bradley is the staff member at Churches Together in England who has all the experience and knowledge about the ways in which churches work together, and is a source of information and guidance if you need advice in following up this paper further. His number is 0207 529 8131. |
| Churches working together in Mission Initiatives | 16th Feb '09 | | This paper is not easy to read but it will open many doors for churches working together with light structures and common understanding in new housing areas where the Church of England is part of an agreement, especially with new Independent Churches that have not been part of previous conversations. It could save lots of ‘re-inventing the wheel’ and makes it quite clear how the CofE can work with new Independent Churches in new housing areas. Though a technical document from the Church of England to advise the Bishops about such working together, it is available here for church leaders to know what has already been worked out, including the legal implications and reference to papers and reports. |
| Guidelines for Single Congregational LEP | 16th Feb '09 |
Guidelines for Single Congregational Local Ecumenical Partnership
This paper shows that partnerships can be created in many and various ways. It used to be thought that an ‘LEP’ was a shared building. This paper shows that an LEP can mean very different things: all very helpful for different projects that are emerging in new housing areas.
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| Guidelines for forming a new LEP | 16th Feb '09 | Growing in Partnership? Guidelines for forming a new local ecumenical partnership
This handy guide from John Bradley at Churches Together in England brings together some straightforward advice and stepping stones as to how different groups of Christians can form a partnership on a new housing area. This nine step Guide leads on to help you form a Declaration of Intent, which is a simple recognition of what you hope to do together. A Constitution is not suggested until Step 8 when the working relationships need formal agreement to build in sustainability when finance and staff allocation become significant. See web site |
| Royal Docks Community Church | 21st Nov '07 | Rev. Penny Marsh is a Baptist minister ordained to work in the Docklands area of East London to start a Fresh Expression of Church in the docklands new housing area. Penny came to speak to the churches coordinating group for new communities and gave this Powerpoint presentation. It reflects her work over several years and the different stages it has gone through. It illustrates how difficult starting from scratch can be and is offered as a realistic encouragement to others who might set about the task.
The presentation is 15 Meg in size - broadband users only.
Click here to download |
| Joseph Rowntree Foundation | 22nd Oct '07 | Here is a series of articles from the the magazine SEARCH of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
View full details ... |
| faithnetsouthwest | 12th Jun '07 | faithnetsouthwest is a regional partnership that supports faith groups engaging in social or community activity in the South West region.
View full details ... |
| Chris Baker paper on Milton Keynes | 26th Mar '07 | | Chris Baker from the William Temple Foundation was in Milton Keynes and reflects theologically and socially on that urban context in this paper ‘Religious Faith in the exurban community. It first appeared in City Volume 9/Number 1/April 2005. It is copyright Taylor and Francis group. |
| Baptist Church Planting paper | 16th Mar '07 | | Helen Wordsworth is one of a number of Baptist ministers scoping the potential and need of building church in new housing areas. Here she provides an overview of church planting in the heart of England in new housing areas. |
| Future Church : Ashford | 13th Mar '07 | Simon Ellis has been a minister in the growing Kent town of Ashford where considerable housing growth has taken place and much more is planned. He has been working with the churches, local authority and developers, and here asks some pertinent questions about what the church in Ashford might look like in the future. Although writing about one place, this brief paper explores some of the ecclesial issues relevant to all.
View full details ... |
| 'Roof Tax' instead of a 106? | 13th Mar '07 | Bob Purser is the Churches Officer for New Communities in Northamptonshire and submitted this paper to church leaders. It explores the question of 'Roof Tax' applied in Milton Keynes as a replacement for the 106 agreement. Discussion took place about whether Northamptonshire might adopt a similar system.
View full details ... |
| Springhead Concept Paper | 13th Mar '07 | | This is a Concept paper presented to the churches in Ebbsfleet Covenant of Churches in April 2006. Springhead is the first phase of the Ebbsfleet development and the proposal is to create community and church to serve it. Although a local example, the paper is excellent at setting out the potential to churches anywhere, not least as three examples of new churches with good community provision are illustrated as examples of what might be possible in a large new housing development. |
| A space worth struggling for | 13th Mar '07 | ‘A space worth struggling for: a contextual overview’
At the first conference CTE held on engaging with new housing, at High Leigh in September 2004, Andrew Davey of the Church of England spoke to the attached paper covering such issues as the a) 70/80’s b) Design c) Sustainable communities d) etc. He provides a good overview on space and new housing areas, with theological reflection and many references which the reader will find helpful. |
| Bible Study from Cambourne | 13th Mar '07 | ‘A man had two sons’: a Bible Study from Cambourne
Rev Peter Wood gave this Bible Study at the CTE conference at High Leigh on new housing areas in September 2004. He takes the Prodigal Son and applies it to their context of a new town on green field land not far from Cambridge. |
| Conference Report on New Housing | 13th Mar '07 | | In September 2004, Churches Together in England hosted a conference at High Leigh for church leaders considering new housing areas. The attached is the Conference Report. |
| William Temple Foundation | 13th Mar '07 | | Chris Baker is a staff member at the William Temple foundation in Manchester. Following his work and experience in Milton Keyes he is particularly concerned with further research of the social and spiritual dimensions of new communities. A synopsis of his PhD ‘Towards a Theology of new Towns – The Implications of the New Town Experience for Urban Theology’ is found on his section of the William Temple website. Here further links can be found to explore Spiritual and Religious capital. |
| Web links | 13th Mar '07 | Below you will find web links to local and regional networks of church leaders involved in new housing areas. Some work on a multi-faith basis. We shall add more as we are advised or become aware.
View full details ... |
| Tail end: a telling tale | 12th Mar '07 | Conversation stopper:
Overheard at coffee after the service:
“It’s the most Christian of all I’ve belonged to over the years, wherever I’ve lived’,
he said.
“And how are you all getting on with the new housing estate on the edge of the parish?” she asked.
‘Oh, we don’t bother them, and they don’t bother us!’ |
| '106' Conference report | 7th Mar '07 | In May 2006, the CTE New Housing Areas Co-0rdinating Group hosted a conference at Methodist Church House in London for people in the networks wanting to explore the subject known as '106 Agreements' or, interchangeably, '106 Obligations'.
The gathering was addressed by key note speakers and a summary of their material and discussion which followed can be found in this conference report. The notes from one speaker is to be found in the section Planning Process / '106 Obligations', and the full report of the day can be downloaded in PDF Format by clicking on the icon above. |
| Faithful Cities | 20th Feb '07 | Faithful Cities is the recent report of the Anglican Commission on Urban Life and Faith.
View full details ... |
| Journeying Out by Ann Morisy | 20th Feb '07 | | It goes without saying that a great many resources are available to do with community development and social action. Few, apart from the above that we know of, are specifically related to the church and new housing areas. For a general read about an appropriate missional response to community need though, and a good place to start is Journeying Out by Ann Morisy, Continuum 2004. This builds on her best selling previous book: Beyond the Good Samaritan. |
| Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) | 20th Feb '07 | A useful research project by JRF looking at Faith as Social Capital.
View full details ... |
| Urblog | 20th Feb '07 | Andrew Davey and Alison Cundiff of the Church of England Archbishops’ Council run a blog site called www.urblog.typepad.com.
It provides an interesting forum for discussions, one of the many being new housing areas. There is a current link to the Housing Audit of CABE for example, which asks what sort of houses do we want in the future. |
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