Parish revitalisations, work with children, young people and families and training for mission in rural areas are among a range of programmes to spread the Christian faith backed by the latest round of grants awarded by the Church of England.
The Dioceses of Carlisle, Chelmsford, Rochester, Sheffield, St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and Winchester are to receive awards for programmes to support parishes and serve communities, ranging from funding for new congregations in churches to funding for clergy and lay workers in urban and rural areas.
The awards, made by the Church of England’s Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) invest in low-income communities and seek to promote diversity in congregations and church leadership.
The Diocese of Chelmsford is to receive £6.45 million for its ‘Believing in Barking’ programme in east London, including support for children and youth workers, mission on estates, and ministry in minority languages, in parishes across the traditions of the Church of England.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, said: “Believing in Barking reflects our commitment to participative change; enabling and empowering local parishes, deaneries and worshipping communities to discern how they are to be God’s people in their own very different contexts and as part of one diocesan family.”
The Diocese of Sheffield has been awarded £14.3 million over the next three years for plans to build on the successes of its Centenary project with children, young people and families.
These include making Sheffield Cathedral a centre of mission through funding for music ‘missioners’, a digital evangelist and support for a new religious community focused on mission and evangelisation and new congregations.
The funding will build on parish revitalisation and mission work in Rotherham and Goole, following successful work at St John’s Goole and Rotherham Minster. There will also be a plan for mission in Doncaster, with Doncaster Minster and St James Church in the city acting as centres of mission.
The plans include work with children, young people and families and support for clergy costs, music, lay ministry, a young leaders’ community and investment in clergy well-being and buildings.
In Carlisle Diocese, a £6.8 million grant will fund a range of work including new worshipping communities with churches in Barrow in Furness, Carlisle and the rural Derwent Deanery. There will be investment to help train over 200 new leaders and a focus on supporting young Christians to grow in faith.
A three-year pilot will also support parish growth and leadership development in rural mission communities.
The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich has received £2.7 million funding to build and expand on successful mission in Ipswich and rural areas of the diocese. The funding will support new congregations in rural areas, mission to people on newly built estates, and outreach through music.
The Diocese of Rochester has been awarded funding of £11 million over the next five years for work to revitalise parishes and work with children and young people in Medway, north and west Kent, and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley.
The grant will help fund leadership development and well-being programmes to support clergy and lay people. The funds will also back an apprentice scheme for children, young people and family work.
The Diocese will seek to build on the successes of work already backed by Strategic Development Funding, such as at St John’s church, Chatham, St Augustine’s, Slade Green, and Christ Church, Erith.
Carl Hughes, Chairman of the SMMIB, said: “I am really delighted that we have been able to fund such a range of awards across the country, from cities to ambitious programmes of mission in some of the most rural areas of England.
“The awards reflect the commitment of the Board to investment in parishes and their leaders, and the work of parishes in developing new services and congregations to serve those they are not currently reaching, particularly in the most income deprived contexts.
“Many of these awards build on previous investments in parishes.”
St Clement’s Church in Boscombe, in the Diocese of Winchester, (pictured, above) in an area of high deprivation and cultural diversity, has been awarded £412,333 for mission to children, young people and families.
The award will fund an administrative post and a children and family worker for schools outreach, with the hope of youth worker in due course. It also includes funding for improvements to the church hall and church building, subject to the approval of awards from other grant funders.
The award is the third parish revitalisation to be funded by SMMIB in the Diocese of Winchester.