£4.36m to encourage more churchgoers
A total of £4.36 million is to be spent trying to encourage more people into Fenland churches under a new project launched by the Diocese of Ely.
The Changing Market Towns project has received £2.13million from the Church of England which has been matched by the diocese bringing a total investment over the next five years to £4.36 million in a bid to raise church attendance.
The project will be focussed on seven towns: Wisbech, March, Chatteris, Downham Market, Ramsey, Littleport and Huntingdon.
At the moment average church attendance across the towns is 0.9 per cent, according to a report drawn up as part of its funding bid by the diocese.
In Wisbech that figure drops to just 0.5 per cent which is well below the three per cent seen in Cambridge churches.
The project, one of five ‘Levers for Change’ within the Diocese of Ely’s Ely2025 Growth Strategy - Targeting Resources to Key Areas, hopes to see 3.25 per cent of the population across market towns committed to involvement in the life of the church by 2025.
It will focus on enabling and sustaining church growth in small and medium-sized towns and will also see the training and nurturing church leaders.
It aims to work across whole towns, and not be constrained by parish boundaries.
The Rt Rev Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely, said: “I am delighted that this major project has received support from the Strategic Development Fund. We hope that, through it, very many more people will be enabled to join a journey of faith and share in God’s work of transforming their communities. It is far-reaching, complex and ambitious and an expression of our faith in the power of God”
Canon Matthew Bradbury, the lead minister in Wisbech, added: “I am absolutely delighted with the news of the grant. After more than a year in the planning, it will be great to start advertising for the additional support workers who together with the members of our congregations will be striving to take the Gospel to the heart of the community”.
It is hoped the funding will enable the Diocese to transform its engagement with Fenland town communities bringing in new congregations and fresh expressions of church.
The project, which has also been welcomed by local MP Steve Barclay, will be supported by the organisational changes necessary to provide church leaders with the freedom to focus on town ministry. It will also help to pay for a network of community support workers with family, youth and other specialisms - leading the work of churches in transforming their communities.
Other major elements of the project include the development of a learning centre for theology and mission in Wisbech. This will aim to equip and grow a wide-range of lay ministers and other trained volunteers to develop new partnerships between the churches and the wider community.
Mr Barclay said: "I am pleased to support the investment in our Wisbech, March, Chatteris and Littleport market towns that has come from the Bishop of Ely via the Strategic Development Funding from the Church of England."
The project has already seen the appointment of Mike Booker as Bishop’s change officer, with a brief to work with clergy and congregations to transform both churches and communities in small towns across the diocese.
