The Beacon

The Beacon - Bart WoodhouseIt used to be an industrial heartland but the Dartford Bridge area became ripe for redevelopment and housing schemes began to spring up on Thames Gateway sites previously dominated by factories and business. The Beacon came into being when the local Methodist Church appointed Bart Woodhouse as lay leader of a new church plant team.

I moved on to the Bridge development in north Dartford with my family while the bulldozers were still very much in evidence in early 2008 so we were among the first five or six people to be here! At first we simply started just to try and meet anyone else who was around so we’d take our children out and about walking, bump into our neighbours and get some conversations going.

The Beacon - housesAs more and more people began to move on site, I was very keen to start a Residents' Association. We put letters through people's doors and organised an informal meeting in one of the new buildings; about 40 or 50 people come along to it.

We made it very clear that we were a church and that we wanted to work to try and build community here, firstly by getting residents together in that Association and giving them a voice.

That was a really effective way of initially getting the community together and being able to listen to what was going on. In new developments there are always issues with houses and how well the windows keep out water and so on – I was able to actually get some movement on those issues. We saw that as part of our role of building Kingdom. Part of our witness here as Christians was to consider how we could make this place a strong, vibrant and healthy place to be – so very early on we did things like holding a community carol service.

The Beacon - building siteWe then stumbled on the national Big Lunch initiative which encourages communities to get together for food and activities. We had a very popular tug of war, a bouncy castle and a barbecue. We also got local people to bring along some home-made food that expressed something of them and their background – a kind of signature dish. As a result of that we had goat curry and many other wonderful things! About 60 or 70 people come which, from the small community that we are at the moment, was quite a big proportion of the people here.

In our desire to help shape community we'll also be working to help create a community garden on a small plot of land on site that couldn't be built on because there's a high pressure oil pipeline underneath it. The youth club will be involved by creating a piece of art or sculpture for the centre of the garden.

The Beacon - threeWe had quite a small group of people with us when we started and now there is about nine and 10 on a core team. They all have a real sense of call to be doing this kind of work but we are learning again what it means to be community and what it means to be church together. We've also got quite a large and growing fringe group and we are using things like the Y Course and other things to encourage that fringe to maybe explore the Christian faith and then hopefully transition into the cell life of the church.

It has been very much about winning trust, listening, forming real relationships and friendships with people and trying to demonstrate something of God's love to them in a practical and real way.

The Beacon - Learning and Community CampusWe meet on a Tuesday evening in cell groups – or Beacon groups – and then on one Sunday in the month we all have a big meal together, maybe with some sort of interactive prayer time. The Dartford Bridge Learning and Community Campus has been built on site and we have a room there which is just the right size for us. We also launched a celebration service at the new school on the Bridge Development in January.

Some people want to try and argue that what we're doing isn't really church, saying that it's just an extended house group or something but I really would want to defend what we're doing here by saying that we are authentically church; we are a worshipping community together. We are also about God's mission, demonstrating the Kingdom in this place, worshipping him and finding ways that are relevant for us to do that. We certainly are creating disciples in what we're doing and encouraging others as to what it might mean to explore being disciples of Christ in this place.

The Beacon - brochureThere are a number of challenges that I think we face in trying to shape a full and healthy Christian community here. One of them is that I'm a lay person in the Methodist Church and so I'm not able to preside at the Eucharist meal. I think there needs to be a real integrity about these new communities we're forming in being able to celebrate that meal – and all that it means – together.

We aim to:

  • Build a strong church that is rooted in the fullness of God's grace and demonstrates the 'Jesus life' to our community and our world;
  • Always strive to foster a strong and real sense of community, one that isn't invasive but supportive;
  • Discover a pattern of Christian life that is 24/7, not limited or detached from the rest of our lives;
  • Follow Jesus, and by his Spirit, demonstrate his message to others.

Our long term vision here is to create a kind of pattern of church that is so integrally part of this new community and yet is authentically a church expressing all the Kingdom values and living out the message of Christ, seeing people discover faith in Jesus and having their lives changed as a result.

Kairos

Kairos - Charlie NobbsThe Kairos Centre has opened its doors as a building for the community in Grange Park, Northampton. It's a dream come true for project chairman Charlie Nobbs and the start of another chapter in the story of Grange Park Church. Anglican minister Charlie tells the tale.

It has been such an interesting journey for us all at Grange Park Church. What started off as a germ of an idea has become a reality in the shape of a central place where people can get together from all walks of the community for all sorts of reasons at the same time.

We have worked with many people along the way but, most recently with South Northamptonshire Council, to transform an empty shell of a building into a much-needed facility. It is the vision of Grange Park Church to follow the call of Jesus to be the good news to Grange Park and beyond – and the Kairos Centre will certainly help us in that.

Kairos - posterAs an Anglican and Baptist Church Local Ecumenical Partnership we meet together on Sunday mornings in Grange Park Community Centre in a nearby part of the village but the Kairos building, in a parade of shops opposite a doctors' surgery, is the base for our church office and coffee shop.

The Kairos Centre is not a church – it’s a place where people can have 'kairos' moments. Kairos is ancient Greek for a critical moment in time, a moment when God draws near and the opportunity to take new direction or restoration is available. Jesus uses the word in Mark to announce the drawing close of the Kingdom as he starts his ministry.

Our vision is for a place that provides facilities and a home for the existing church family, provides services and relationships with the wider community and ultimately will be home to future fresh expressions of church. We are just relaunching a cafĂ© style evening service and hope to develop an after-school club fresh expression and maybe even a film church – as and when we are able.

Kairos - balloonsThe larger meeting room can take about 60 people and there is also a quiet room; a place where people can have 'kairos' or just find some peace from the hectic pace of life. The lounge area also has a coffee shop currently open four mornings a week as well as a small meeting room and the church office. These rooms can also be used for affordable conference/meeting facilities.

Lots of people these days are concerned that new housing areas run the risk of becoming soulless dormitory estates, but we are working hard to combat that. We also hope to develop a menu of wellbeing and lifestyle events, such as advice on debt management, counselling, social events for adults and children's and youth activities.

Looking back, and I was just coming to the end of my curacy in 2001 at St Giles Northampton when it was suggested I could maybe do a church plant in this new housing area.

Kairos - girlsI gathered a few people together but the Baptists had beaten us to it! They felt that God had called them to plant a cell church at Grange Park and we had a similar sense of calling to what God was doing so we joined forces and started to gather a team.

Just a few hundred houses had been built at the time; you could walk around the place in an hour or so and knock on every door. I joined the parish council, while my Baptist colleague helped to set up Neighbourhood Watch in the area and got involved when the primary school was being built.

Initially we were church planting with a traditional Sunday service plus small groups model rather than a fresh expression, but we were keen to connect with those who might not usually attend a traditional church and focused on young families.

To launch the first public worship, we did a holiday club type 'thing' called Kidzone. There was no building to have anything in and all the issues with child protection were getting to be a bit of a nightmare so we set up a 'camp' around one of the school playgrounds – we had lots of gazebos and each gazebo was an activity zone. Naively we thought that all the children and parents who flocked to Kidzone would also flock to church the following week. That didn't happen but what we did notice was that groups of parents would be chatting together while waiting for their children and the conversations would be along the lines of 'Where do you live?', 'O I'm just round the corner from there, come and have a coffee.' We had stumbled upon community building as a means of being good news to Grange Park!

Kairos - crossKidzone has continued and grown as an annual event and we usually get 400 to 500 children over three days in the last week of the summer holidays. As our aim is to be good news in the community, Kidzone is something that has worked very well in letting people know there is a church, that it is good to have it and begin to build relationships.

The other area in which we have seen very encouraging results is through the work of health care professionals. We got to know one of the health visitors and she said that all of the doctors' surgeries were over-run with depressed new mums. We suggested she use our home for appointments with the mums and so Talking Point got up and running on Thursday mornings. My wife Charlotte has been very instrumental in helping to develop something that has become phenomenally successful.

Visitors are offered tea, coffee, cake and a warm welcome. They just meet and chat in our lounge, comparing birth experiences and sleep patterns. The Health Visitors love it because they can see eight or more at a time; the mums love it because they make friends and realise they are not alone. There aren't many babies born in Grange Park that haven't been through our house!

Kairos - toysThe good news is that the Health Visitors believe Talking Point has significantly improved the mental health of struggling mums as it is a network which picks up different people. We now have various Talking Point groups in and around Grange Park. We use cell principles and organise a social night for the parents without their kids; it welds them together as a cohesive group.

Midwives in the area have also picked up on Talking Point, telling mums-to-be about it as a place to go after the birth. Things shifted again when one of the people coming along to the sessions asked about getting their baby baptised; another wanted to do an Alpha course.

The upshot of that is a group called Stepping Stones which we now run fortnightly on Tuesday mornings in the Community Centre. We make it clear that it is run by the church but it is all very informal; we offer a breakfast of croissants and orange juice for carers, mums and children, hear stories told from the Bible in creative ways, and provide a craft activity. We say it's an opportunity to take a stepping stone towards God. I would say Stepping Stones is a fresh expression of church; it has been going for nearly four years and we regularly get about 50 mums and their children.

Kairos - cakeThat in turn has developed because several mums said they wanted to find out more; their children were asking questions they didn't know the answer to and the parents also thought of the Bible stories as being a 'good thing' to teach the little ones.

To meet that need, we offer a five-week introduction to Christianity course through a DVD series called Journeys. As a result, a number of people have come to faith, some continue in that faith and others disappear.

The Kairos Centre now offers further possibilities in our life together in this community. I believe God wants us to be blessed through it and in turn bless Grange Park and beyond.

Kairos - waving

Sacred

Sacred - peninsulaAfter many years of working in the area, Greenwich United Church (United Reformed and Methodist) has started a fresh expression of church on the Greenwich Peninsula. SACRED explores the sacred in body, mind, heart and spirit. Revd Martyn Coe explains more.

This area is experiencing rapid change and will continue to do so in the run-up to the Olympics in two years' time. There's no doubt that London 2012 will have a major impact on the lives of those who live and work here, and all of the churches are beginning to look at how we might respond to those challenges. SACRED is part of that thinking, though our concern is very much for the here and now as well as what is to come. We want to be seen to be available to those around us and be part of the community today. That has to be better than trying to play catch-up with an expected influx of 20,000 people to the Peninsula over the next decade or so.

Sacred - school signWe meet in Millennium Primary School on Wednesday nights for about an hour-and-a-half and have a four weekly pattern encompassing worship, reflection, thinking creativity and symbolic action. We look at Heart – looking inside ourselves; Body – worship reflecting on the whole body of Christ throughout the world; Spirit – communion influenced by the Iona Community and Head – using a DVD study course to explore faith.

We believe this monthly cycle gives us a consistency of presence and the chance to expand our horizons and get to know one another. Things are set to change again soon because, despite the economic slowdown, building work is continuing and a new multi-faith centre will go up quite close to the O2 Arena over the next couple of months.

Sacred - barrierThere is undoubtedly pressure on developers to keep to that deadline – otherwise it will still be 3,000 parking spaces by 2012. That wouldn’t look too good with the world's cameras trained on London!

During Lent we are working alongside an Anglican church which meets in the same school on Sundays and we use the Living Questions DVD to explore faith issues. For our theology and ecclesiology, the course works very well as it comes from our more radical liberal background.

Sacred - domeWe are looking to welcome to people when they move into the area, a sort of drop-in facility. As part of that we are in talks with the local authority and the Scout District about starting Beavers and Cubs to meet immediately before SACRED.

One of our challenges as a fresh expression of church is for us to become sustainable in funds and resources over a period. At the moment, SACRED is part funded by the southern synod of The United Reformed Church and I work alongside Deacon Jane Rice, and Alison Adam who used to be with the Wild Goose community.

Models of church and ways of reaching people have changed dramatically in recent times. In this area, for instance, it's very concierge-driven in that you can't easily do leafleting any more because you can no longer just walk into buildings and put a leaflet through someone's letterbox.

Sacred - treesWe also need to be aware that in many of these new developments what looks like public space may not be public space at all. I may think I'm on public property because it's an open, green area but I could be asked to leave it because I am actually on private land.

It is helpful that I am part of a multi-faith chaplaincy in the area. We visit businesses and developments, and my 'patch' includes ASDA and a number of restaurants in the O2 Arena. I also have a Health and Safety certificate so I can legally go onto building sites to speak to people.

I'm not sure if we will move SACRED down to the multi-faith centre when it opens. It will be handy to the O2 but not close to where people live. It's more in the commercial district.

Sacred - groupWe are talking about offering daily prayer there in the middle of the day. Everyone involved is hoping that it will work together but we have been very, very clear that what we are doing is a multi faith activity rather than an inter faith activity. We are people of faith working alongside each other for the common good.

Willington Quay

Steve DixonSt Paul's is an Anglican church in Willington Quay, an area of urban deprivation on the banks of the Tyne. In 2000 the church was reordered to accommodate a community project, managed by the church. Steve Dixon, Church Army Evangelist and Lay Pioneer Ministry in the Diocese of Newcastle, continues the story.

Willington Quay - header

Willington Quay, is on the banks of the river Tyne. It is an old industrial village, which quickly became part of the Tyne and Wear conurbation. It is an area of high urban social deprivation. It is also quite an isolated area. To access services, people need to travel out of the village on a reduced bus service that only increases people's sense of disconnection. The majority of people here do not own their own homes and live in privately rented or housing association accommodation. Council statistics suggest that the state of this housing is probably the worst in the borough.

Willington Quay - St Paul's ChurchIn amongst this is St Paul's Church, which was one of nine churches in the area. As the area suffered increasingly from the trauma of post-industrialisation, all the other churches were demolished as their congregations became unsustainable. In response to the increasing social needs, St Paul's Church was reordered in 2000 to accommodate a community project, managed by the church. This was a very brave decision, as St Paul's Church itself was finding it difficult to keep going.

The community project was a success from the start. Listening to local needs resulted in the project becoming an important hub in the local community. Other than one general store, a sandwich shop, kebab shop, a couple of pubs and a 'working men's club', the church is the only public space in Willington Quay. However, just over three years ago the congregation at St Paul's church disbanded. At that time formal worship services closed, but the community project continued in a limited capacity. Two years later, my post was created to work alongside the remaining church wardens and local people to revive the project and create a new worshipping community.

Willington Quay - eventThe project aims to make a difference to local people facing deprivation, with groups and support for single parent families, young people, people living with long-term unemployment and older people. All these activities were centred on offering loving service, working in partnership with local government and other voluntary organisations. The project has created social cohesion for those engaged with it. We can expect 150 people to turn up for community events that we run, because there is now real ownership of it. My post was created by the Diocese to develop a fresh expression of church out of the work of the project, as part of a team ministry. Given that there is now a viable community, I was charged with exploring the need for discipleship and forms of worship. The two church wardens and I are the people on the ground. One of the first things we have done is to set up a new more inclusive and empowering management approach to the project, now called 'St Paul's Community Partnership', that involves local residents and institutions.

Willington Quay - ladies singingWe did a lot of thinking about how we can rebuild a form of church coming out of the project. Do we start with some form of discipleship course or worship gathering as a bit of a taster – to give people room to explore questions? We chose the latter, because contextually there is real resistance to training and education type approaches, as many people here had a poor experience of education. So on Pentecost Sunday 2009 we started worship services again in the church, using the CPAS 'Start course' and adapting it to meet the discipleship needs of our context.

In the worship services we are trying to be as inclusive as possible, but particularly focusing on young families, which include teenagers and older people. We have not advertised these new worship services outside of the project, to make sure they didn’t get taken over by people travelling in, thereby keep it contextual. It is growing well. We are open to the possibility that our youth work may lead to some form of youth church  in the future, where St Paul’s becomes in itself a mixed economy of local church.

Willington Quay - housingThe Church now faces new challenges. A lot of the ex-industrial land has been bought up for new housing, for those who have money. Clearly this is not going to be the people who already live here. It seems that more affluent people living in Tyne & Wear are moving in. This raises huge issues around social cohesion, with the 'have's and the 'have not's living in different parts of our expanding village. We are currently exploring setting up some new forms of groups such as book clubs, evening classes and explorations of spirituality to engage in these 'new build' areas. We are still dreaming!

So in five years time, we hope that St Paul's will be financially and socially sustainable. We're also hoping that someone will emerge from the work to explore the development of a sacramentality.

Mawsley Church

Ten years ago, they began to build a new village from scratch on a 'green field' site south west of Kettering in Northamptonshire. They called it Mawsley. Paul Seaton-Burn, curate at Mawsley Church, continues the story.

Now there are around 840 houses, so the local community has come together as an eclectic and diverse group from all over the country, initially as strangers, as no previously community existed. In the original plans, it was intended that a new church building was to be included, but it was never built. The local parish church is a mile away across the fields with no direct access.

Initially a group of people emerged as a small Christian community, meeting in a house for bible study which they called 'Christians in Mawsley'. This ecumenical group maintained a presence over the years, supported by the local Anglican vicar (who lived elsewhere) and a retired Salvation Army officer.

Mawsley Church logoThree years ago I moved with my family to Mawsley in my first post as a Curate. 'Christians in Mawsley' was then a group of Christians coming from different traditions that didn't really reach out to the village. There was a sense of collaboration and enthusiasm but no clear strategic purpose, and I was asked to assist in developing this into what we would call now a fresh expression of church. I was a traditional curate in a benefice to four churches in other villages, but also being a pioneer in Mawsley.

We changed the name to 'Mawsley Church' to reflect the conservative (with a small 'c') nature of the place and its people. While hardly prosaic it 'said what it did on the tin' and was recognised by friends at the school gate. They needed the confidence that this new church was trustworthy. We maintain a broad ecumenical welcome while being supported solely by the Anglican church.

Mawsley Church - Messy ChurchBuilding on growing relationships with local people in Mawsley we began twice-monthly gatherings for public worship in December 2006. We meet on Sunday mornings in a Community Centre in the heart of the village – very much in secular space – where children's ministry began last year. Small groups have also met, with varying degrees of success, in homes across Mawsley. Larger scale 'messy church' events for children up to 10 years of age and their carers have become a regular opportunity for outreach here at significant times such as Christmas & Easter (and have spread to a nearby village too). We deliberately hold these in Mawsley's local Primary School. These more participative forms of worship have successfully engaged with fringe people, again of the 'de-and-unchurched' type. This year on Easter Monday, we had a Messy Church event and ninety-five children plus their parents and helpers attended. For the first time the school parents' group asked to be involved this year. These events happen mainly because of the participation of many fringe and non-church parents.

Mawsley Church childrenWe have sought to develop our participation with other village events as a form of outreach to local people. So we play our part in fayres, family 'It's a Knockout' and other social events, and this has increased our ability to build relationships with people who do not go to church. Regular assemblies, a Bumps & Buggies group and starting an annual litter pick have also played their part, too.

The challenge of enabling people to join our community is happening, but must embrace both new and recognised ways of welcoming people. Our all-age remembrance day worship in 2008 was supported by some 240 people.

We now face the challenge of discipling people. So we have a community whose faith needs developing and maturing. So far we have been reliant on formation through action and participation in doing Christian events. So in this way, in a one-to-one approach, we have seen some pre-discipleship development. As my family and I prepare to move on, the good news is that a new ordained pioneer curate, Richard Priestley, is coming to Mawsley with broad experience of nurturing discipleship. This is the next step, to develop a contextual approach to discipleship on top of the relational mission and worship that God has started.

Vanessa describes her experience of Mawsley Church

I came to Mawsley just over two and a half years ago. To put it mildly my soul was broken. I was emotionally battered or in the words of a Pink Floyd classic hit 'Comfortably Numb'.

I had been through several years of two failed and dysfunctional relationships. I was living alone with my two children aged then 7 and 8 and my youngest son lived with his father and I didn't see him. I was lost but still had a glimmer of hope left in me. Mawsley was a new start, my own house at last, but something was missing. I yearned to be an ordinary family, mum, dad and the children, but somehow it had been an elusive dream.

At that time when I look back, God had already manifested himself in my life. A bout of depression had lead me to take solace at a convalescence home, and it was whilst I was there I was introduced to the chaplain. I remember it as a 'ping moment' when I felt I was metaphorically lifted by the spirit of the Lord and held. I was like a lost child being embraced and protected having been lost, and I had a sudden feeling of my pain and anguish being taken away from me, relieved of my burdens that had weighed me down for decades.

Mawsley Church ChristmasI made a conscious decision when I went to Mawsley to invest some time in me. I wanted to discover my spiritual side, and in response to my experience at the convalescent home, I plucked up the courage to go to Mawsley Church. I took the children with me. Everyone was so welcoming and I soon came to learn that the small congregation were all on different parts of their spiritual journey. It was within Mawsley church that I found the family I had yearned for. It was right here on my doorstep.

I learned too that even in the church, there was so much 'brokeness' in the lives of the people I met. One of the good things to come out from this is that the church allowed me not to focus on my own issues, but made me more open to help others in their time of need.

It was through the help and advice from the church, that I permitted myself to let go of some of the things that continued to weigh me down. They showed me that I had a choice and that I could choose to seek happiness, and that happiness has been found through my faith in God and my church family in Mawsley. I had learned to forgive the wrong that had been done to me, and I virtually removed the chains that had paralysed me for so long. My reward is that I now enjoy helping and encouraging others move on from places where they have become stuck.

Mawsley Church bannersI was not the only one to benefit from my experiences with our church. The children made new friends, and drew strength from the improvement they saw in me, a happier mummy. The question arose around baptism and I pondered over my decision for many months. I let the children decide whether they also wanted to be baptised. The answer was a resounding yes. I decided it would be a wonderful idea to have a family baptism. I wanted to share this point of Megan and Ewans spiritual journey. I saw my position as their spiritual guide, equipping them with the many tools our faith offered for their later journey in life. On the 28th September 2008, we had the marvellous experience of being baptised by submersion as a family at Mawsley Church. It was an incredibly charged moment for me personally, I could barely hold back my tears of emotion. That day I felt all three of us had turned a corner and we began a new journey strengthened by the love of God.

Charlie my youngest son, is now firmly back in our lives. He is, thank goodness, a happy and well-balanced little boy. He openly admits he models himself on his dad and is influenced by dad's stance towards religion which is predominantly atheist. He however does come along to church with us, and will often revert to rhetorical gibberish about not believing in God because his dad says so, but more recently he competes to say grace at dinner times and has even asked if I would come and bless his house to take away any 'naughty spirits'. I hope in my heart that Charlie will learn to trust the Lord. My job for now is to 'fan his flame' within.

Wootton

Ian Mobsby talks to Rona Orme, Children's Missioner for the Diocese of Peterborough, about the beginnings of a fresh expression in a new-build area of Northamptonshire.

Wootton - surroundings

Wootton was a classic English village on the edge of Northampton, which in the last ten years has been absorbed by the building of new housing to become a larger suburban part of greater Northampton. The needs of this population have steadily increased, many of which are unchurched families of young parents with young children. The local Parish Church of St Georges has not been able to make an impact in many parts of this new community, whilst developing its continuing work to the older parts of Wootton.

 

Two years ago, a new parish priest was appointed who began to develop a more engaged ministry with local people. Although requests for baptism and numbers attending monthly Family Services have grown, it soon became apparent that she did not have the capacity to engage further with the people living in the 'new-build' areas with its two new primary schools, secondary school and growing community of unchurched families.

Additionally, there were very few local links between the old village of Wootton, and the community developing in the new-build area, making things even harder for the Parish Church to have an impact in the newer areas of its community. In effect, two parallel communities were emerging out of the local context. So the Diocesan Mission Enabler, Children's Missioner, Archdeacon and Parish Priest became increasingly aware that the mission and ministry needs of the new-build area of Wootton remained unmet.

  

This then raised the need to develop a 'mixed economy parish' – deepening and developing the work that had already been started, alongside beginning something new and pioneering to address the needs of those parts of the local community the church had not been able to reach.

An opportunity presented itself, when the Church of England Commissioners offered the Diocese of Peterborough money for setting up four posts to engage with new-build housing communities with pioneering mission initiatives. It was offered to assist the Diocese to engage in mission with a local population expansion of 20%.

 Wootton church

Providentially, these posts were to be focused on meeting the specific mission and ministry needs we had already identified in Wootton. So the Diocese quickly explored what a potential pioneer post could contribute in assisting the Church to engage with the needs of largely unchurched families with young children living in the new areas of Wootton, which is now the key focus supported by the Diocese, Deanery and Parish.  

 

Already partnering discussions have begun with one of the local Primary Schools. Preston Hedge's Primary School was very keen to develop collaborative pastoral support for working with children facing family relational difficulties, and to develop after school clubs exploring faith and other issues. The school see the need as supporting the emotional and spiritual development of pupils, creating an exciting opportunity for contextual mission and ministry. There is now a real potential for birthing something really interesting and innovative in a local mixed economy of church.

The Diocese are currently seeking the appointment of a full time Pioneer Minister (open to Lay or Ordained Pioneer Minister) to lead this exciting new project, with support from the local Parish Priest, Diocesan Mission Enabler and Children’s Missioner. It is hoped that this work will build an evolving ecclesial community coming out of mission and ministry needs of local children and their families in a school context.