A grant of over 5 million hasbeen awarded to the Diocese of Worcester to enable two resourcing churches tobe established in Worcester and Dudley. All Saints Church in Worcester and StThomas & St Luke in Dudley Top Church will each receive funding todevelop their church buildings and employ additional team members to enablethem to grow and become a resource for all churches across the Diocese.
All Saints in Worcester willbe looking to further develop St Helens on the High Street as well as AllSaints itself. In 2002, All Saints was relaunched to provide an Anglicanevangelical ministry which was missing in the City of Worcester and has sincegrown to nearly 400 members. The funding from the Church Commissioners willenable All Saints to develop and expand further, growing leaders andsupporting other churches in Worcester and beyond.
The new resourcing church inDudley is an opportunity to establish a congregation in Dudley which will bevery different from the other Church of England congregations currently in thetown. Top Church will be redeveloped and improved and a new team there willwork with the existing community there to bring new life to this iconic churchto enable it to best serve the needs of the local area.
The Bishop of Worcester, DrJohn Inge said: Were absolutely delighted that the Church Commissioners aresupporting this new project. Research has shown how bringing resources into anarea to fund intentional mission can have an impact much wider than theindividual churches. Resourcing Churches have been very successful across theChurch of England in bringing more people to faithand All Saints and Top Church are both an important part of themix as to how we can better serve and reach those who are not currently part ofany Christian community.
The Revd Rich Johnson, Vicarof All Saints, said: All Saints is excited about becoming one of theresourcing churches in the diocese, which will allow us to further develop ourcommitment to both caring for the most vulnerable in our city and to offer aplace where people of all backgrounds can explore faith.We look forward to being able to partnerstrategically with the Bishop and other churches to see renewal and growthacross the region.
The Revd James Treasure willlead the new Resourcing Church in Dudley. He said: This is really wonderfulnews for the Church of England in Dudley! We are very excited about all theopportunities this creates for the people of the borough to experience 'life,in all its fullness' as Jesus promised.
The two resourcing churcheswill further develop links with the local community and other local churches toensure each is well known in its area and effectively serving the local needs. Outreachin response to these needs will be a key element of the churches. They willboth have a primarily contemporary style of worship, which has been proven toattract new people to faith. Once established, Resourcing Churches will be ableto offer help and advice to other local churches to develop particular areas oftheir own mission and ministry.
All Saints will be launched asa resourcing church in the Autumn while it is anticipated that the officiallaunch of the Top Church resourcing church will take place in September 2019.
ENDS
