Urban Churches Support Group

In response to Bread to Share and the changing nature of our work UCSG is moving towards a new way of working which is focused on developing a network of people with resources to share with urban churches. It is envisaged that this network will work with two people based in a local church, operating as a centre for urban mission in London. We had a our first exploratory meeting on Thursday, 23 October, 2008 and have subsequently met on January 15 and April 29 2009

Those who attended were Malachie Munyaneza ; Shahbaz Javed; Tim Clarke; Francis Ackroyd; James Ashdown; John Danso; Sandra Ackroyd. We received apologies from Jayne Bazeley and Maggie Hindley. It was a positive meeting and people had a wide variety of gifts to offer including: Regeneration projects, community development, inter-faith, theological education, multi-cultural worship, racial justice, mental illness, African theologies, Asian perspectives, Islam, youth work, rites of passage, children’s ministry and counselling.

UCSG continues to hold a number of regular events such as Cause for Celebration which attracts between 80 and 100 people as well as smaller more focused events such as the Church Secretaries Consultation. Rites of Passage has also been a regular event and we have trained over 90 people in the past 10 years in different cultural approaches to funerals, baptism and marriage etc. Furthermore one off events have been successfully held on issues such as parenting and gun and knife crime. We have also engaged in long-term work such as supporting particular urban churches and the ongoing work on chronic illness.

Suggestions and priorities for the future;

Maintaining an urban churches voice that is listened to and heard in both synods and in any further debate about a possible London synod
Resourcing churches for the complex but exciting mission situations in London
Promoting God’s gospel amongst the poor
Developing projects with strategic thinking
Being available for local churches and their training and development needs in their urban contexts
Publicising the Network more widely
Maintaining regular contact with strategic people and committees in each synod
Developing urban theological thought and action

If you are interested in attending and exploring what you could contribute to urban churches in London please do get in contact

Sandra Ackroyd ( UCSG coordinator )

April 29, 2009 and reflections by James Ashdown

September, 2009 a report of network meeting which seeks to define purpose and activities of UCSG as a growing, organic response to urban churches in London