At the General Synod on 20th-23rd February, the church will discuss a motion which will acknowledge that there has historically been a marginalisation of people in social housing by both the church and the state.
Plans drafted by the Estates Evangelism Task Group reveal a desire to change this and ‘see a serving, loving and worshipping Christian community on every significant social housing estate in the country’.
The church will discuss urging every diocese to build ministries in estates and involve the residents in their mission strategies, such as considering where they plant churches or deploy clergy to.
Speaking to Premier about this vision, Reverend Helen Shannon, who is part of the Estate Evangelism task group, said they were looking particularly at estates that had around 500 houses in: “If you look at parishes in the Church of England, those make up a fifth of the parishes.
“Nearly 50% of the population live actually in those parishes but out of those parishes there is only a third whose church building is actually on or near the estate.
“In London you can have a succesful church…impacting the community, seeing social transformation but actually they’re not impacting the estate down the road. And so I think that’s where our feeling for ‘sent-ness’ comes from – that actually we have to go to those communities that can be isolated within great pockets of…
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