Fresh Expressions
Changing church for a changing world
Fresh Expressions encourages new forms of church for a fast changing world, working with Christians from a variety of denominations and traditions. The initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches. It was initiated in 2005 by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the Methodist Council, but now also involves the United Reformed Church and a number of other partners.
The initiative was established as part of the follow-up to the best-selling report, Mission-shaped Church. The team has worked at grass roots level with dioceses, districts, synods and groups of churches and has played a leading role in the formation of national policy in a number of denominations.
As we encourage new forms of church for those who are not already members of any church, we also want to consolidate all that has been achieved in terms of major projects and policy changes at national level. Our work revolves around four aims:
* renewing vision * gathering news * supporting growth * developing training
Website: Fresh Expressions
Ipswich Fresh Expressions Vision Day Report - Another Great Success
The Fresh Expressions Vision day, on the 22nd June 2013, was a dynamic day of fun and interactive exploration of new ways of being church and how to form them. We had 83 delegates from ten different denominations and church streams. As well as the main sessions, which examined the place, purpose and process of Fresh Expressions of Church, we also ran seminars on the following themes:
• Missional New Monastic Communities – reaching out to spiritual seekers ;
• Messy Church in a Sacramental based environment;
• How do we reach new communities that are being established in new housing estates?;
• Rural Fresh Expressions;
• Authentic faith: fresh expressions of church amongst young adults.
Some of the comments we've had back were: 'Inspiring'; 'Challenging and Thought Provoking' 'Honest response to hard questions'; and 'Tell Bishop Nigel to make all his clergy have this day!'
Download: Fresh Expressions Vision Day Report
Synod Fresh Expressions Vision Day a Great Success
About ninety people gathered at Witham URC for the Synod Vision Day on Saturday 10th November 2012. The church was set out in a Café style and there were also break out rooms for the workshops. The main sessions were led jointly by Linda Raynor the URC National Fresh Expressions co-ordinator, Tim Yau our Synod Pioneer Minister and Peter Ball our Synod Training and Church Development Officer.
Download: Fresh Expressions Vision Day Report and Pictures
Whilst there is obviously no substitute for being at an event we have linked to audio files (MP3) of the three main sessions of the day, allowing you to listen to a flavour of what went on - the duration of each is given below its link.
Session 1 - What is happening and why it is important: how fresh expressions are changing the landscape (1 hour 14 minutes)
Session 2 - Values and how fresh expressions are developing and can develop in your context (1 hour 7 minutes)
Session 3 - where next? (48 minutes)
