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Churches Together in Shropshire operates through the Shropshire Ecumenical Council and an Enabling Group which carries out the work assigned to it by the S E C. It covers the whole of the County of Shropshire except for the Telford & Wrekin local authority area which is served by Telford Christian Council.

The Shropshire Ecumenical Council consists of the holders of the following offices:

  • The Regional Minister of the Heart of England Baptist Association
  • The Bishop of Lichfield
  • The Bishop of Hereford
  • The Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury
  • The Bishop and Archdeacon of Ludlow
  • The Archdeacon of Salop
  • The Priest of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers of Nicaea in Shrewsbury
  • The Chair of the Wolverhampton & Shrewsbury Methodist District
  • A Representative of The Moderator of the Montgomeryshire & Shropshire Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Wales
  • Someone on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends
  • The Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury
  • The co-adjutor Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury
  • The Cathedral Dean of Shrewsbury Cathedral
  • The Divisional Commander of the West Midlands Division of the Salvation Army
  • The Moderator of the West Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church.

The Enabling Group sits in attendance at the meetings of the Ecumenical Council and comprises the following persons:

The Chair of the Enabling Group, The Treasurer of CTS, The Telford Ecumenical Dean, The Denominational Ecumenical Officers (6) for the Baptist Church, the Diocese of Lichfield, The Diocese of Hereford, The Methodist Church, The Catholic Church and the United Reformed Church; representatives of local Churches Together groups in the County and the County Ecumenical Secretary.

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The Mission of the Church in Shropshire

At the meeting of the Shropshire Ecumenical Council in October, 2004, the Church Leaders for the county held a special session to consider the Mission of the Church in Shropshire and Telford. Presentations were given by five of the denominations, and this is a digest of what was said (without identifying persons or denominations):

The opening statement summed up the task as “What is the Lord calling us to do at this challenging time?

The difficulties facing the Church and denominations included statements such as:

The scenario of declining numbers and therefore less income was in danger of becoming a vicious circle.
The Church is missing the 20/40 age group
Reaching Children is an area of concern as is reaching the people of “ethnic origin”.
There is a decline in attendance and a decline in values in society.
Church values tend to corrupt the churches - not the world’s values.
The Church is marginalized by secular society.
What is Mission? It has many meanings depending on the source of the definition.
Resources are shrinking and it is now necessary to determine what the priorities are.
People need to be helped to gain self-confidence in expressing their Faith.

Three issues that need to be addressed are decline in attendance, ageing membership and deployment of staff.
The main challenges now being faced are;
An unwillingness on the part of some to change,
A lack of Confidence in the Gospel,
A greater ease with Social Action than with Evangelism.

The tasks which the Church and denominations face were seen to include these statements:

The priorities - in partnership wherever possible -
To proclaim conviction of God’s Love.
To demonstrate Confidence in God.
To promote this commitment to Priorities and Partnership,
Provision of books, enquiry resources and news leaflets.
Reading & study. Peace & social witness.
Christ’s love can change these phenomena but how do we communicate this?
Churches need to be “Real”.
The Churches need confidence in themselves and their message.
The Churches need to recognise effectiveness. We need to recognise the impact the Church is still having.
There needs to be pruning - to cut busyness, to get fruitful.

Action Plans and work in progress included the following statements:

Helping members to seek the vision and to remind them of their belonging to a world Church.
Putting emphasis on a Creative Christ-Like, Hope-filled Church.
There has been widespread local consultation with all responses recorded.
Mission includes speaking to the schools and chaplaincies.
We are looking at Oversight and the relationship between the local chapels.
There has been a concentration on Pruning, Priorities and Partnership; recognising that local congregations are individual but not independent.
The aim is to enable the local congregations to discern their local mission, and to work in partnership wherever possible.

And finally, a few statements on Christian Philosophy:

A strong and healthy Church is needed for the salvation of the world.
The Church has a hand in every community.
There is a call to be ‘more Christian in the world and more human in the church’.
We are there for all enquirers.
We can all point to a person who has influenced us in our spiritual life.
Christian Faith can only be proposed and not imposed.

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   New Covenant of Church Leaders for Shropshire signed on March 18th 2004

We give thanks to the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for every opportunity we are given to continue building trust and community between us, and to share in worship, work and consultation together.

We celebrate the spirit of partnership which has grown among us over recent years and we are now able to build on the Covenant signed at the inauguration of Churches Together in Shropshire on 17th January 1993

We recognise that we share many similar responsibilities, joys, problems and hopes. We have much to offer to and receive from each other in the rich diversity of our traditions.

We affirm the following marks of a missionary church as recognised by Churches Together in England:

  • proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom;
  • teaching, baptising and nurturing new believers;
  • responding to human need by loving service;
  • seeking to transform unjust structures of society;
  • striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustaining the life of the earth 

We publicly commit ourselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to:

  • healing the memories of past divisions;
  • proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel;
  • continuing to deepen and develop our common life in Christ and our outreach and mission to the world;
  • engaging together with the issues and concerns of the 21st century in order to promote all that makes for justice and peace and builds up the common good.

We therefore undertake: to

  • meet together regularly to further the aims of this Covenant;
  • foster an increase in Co-operation, Commitment and Companionship between Christians of all traditions in their own local situation;
  • work together in matters of strategic planning and pastoral provision.

We pray Christ’s prayer for unity that we may be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We invite all Christians in Shropshire to support and encourage us in the keeping of this Covenant, which shall be a sign of our commitment to one another under God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen