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St Stephen with St John Westminster Mission Action Plan Our aim as a church is to be a welcoming community that celebrates the joy and the challenge of the Christian faith; and to be a place to which we come to worship God, in order to go out and live more faithfully in the wider world. “The parish church that is genuinely open to God’s mission and accessible to its community, and where people with unlike life stories can encounter one another as friends in our highly compartmentalised society, is an ancient idea that is always fresh.” Richard Chartres, Bishop of London We believe that our mission is substantially expressed through faithfully sustaining the life of an Anglican parish church in the centre of London, rooted in worship and in the local community. __________________________________ Following sustained review, we have identified 5 areas for particular attention at this stage, in order to strengthen and develop the regular life of our church as a vehicle for God’s mission: 1. Spiritual development: to help us grow as Christians, whether newcomers to the church or established members. 2. Children and young people: to value the contribution of our younger members, and strengthen the provision that we make for them. 3. Increasing our awareness of the wider church: both in our own city, and globally. 4. Staffing: to pursue options for further staffing, in order to develop the church’s potential for ministry and mission. 5. Organ and bells: to replace our church organ, developing our musical life, and if possible to ensure the future use of the bells. There has been significant – and in some cases substantial – progress in each of these areas, and the Parochial Church Council is committed to keeping all of them under active review. September 2011. |