Jesus comes to proclaim Good News to the poor (Luke 4, 16). As His disciples, of different denominations but united by our shared desire to listen prayerfully to His call, we commit ourselves afresh though presence, service and proclamation to the ministry of evangelism on our nation’s urban estates by:

Strand 1: Championing Estates Ministry 

a) Challenging the Churches at every level to ensure that people from estates are key partners at every tier of our structures

b) Ensuring there is a church community on every significant urban estate in England and fostering and encouraging fresh and emerging forms of church life on the estates

c) Developing an effective communications strategy to raise the profile of estates ministry and ensure that good news stories are celebrated

d) Building robust partnerships between churches and schools on estates to ensure that young people are able to experience life in all its fullness

e) Working together as ecumenical partners

Strand 2: Theology and the Public Voice

a) Developing our apologetics and reflecting on the content of the Gospel we proclaim to answer the question: ‘What is the Good News on the estates?’

b) Creating rich dialogue between theologians and estates practitioners to create a contemporary theological foundation for estates ministry and evangelism, exploring themes such as cross and glory, repentance and lament.

c) Defining effective evangelism. What is it? What are the indicators? What constitutes success on the estates?

d) Understanding the changing socio-economic and demographic context of estates ministry

e) Engaging with Government and structures of power

Strand 3: Leadership

a) Calling, developing and training local lay leadership

b) Forming ordained leaders from and for the urban estates

c) Offering support and high quality training to current leaders

d) Challenging the selection and training pathways for licensed ministries and developing new forms of recognised lay ministry

e) Ensuring sustainable patterns of deployment and support for Estates clergy

Strand 4: Resources

a) Ensuring that appropriate financial resources are available to estates churches and that these resources are not wasted

b) Helping local churches to find practical solutions to issues around buildings, administration and finance

c) Signposting to contextually appropriate resources for evangelism, discipleship and ministry to Youth and children

d) Working with partners to develop new resources where there is a recognised need

e) Passing on good practice and inspiration through models, research, stories and toolkits