Mission in Multi-Faith Areas
| The Diocese of St Albans includes thirty-five parishes where other faith communities comprise more than ten percent of the population (only six dioceses in the country have more multi-faith parishes). Broadly speaking, there are large Jewish communities in south Hertfordshire and Barnet, and there are large Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities along the diocesan spine of Watford, St Albans, Luton and Bedford. | |
| Churches live out their Christian witness by being present and engaged in multi-faith neighbourhoods. Churches that are barely viable in terms of numbers and finance are often at the cutting edge of mission in the ways they serve their local community. You’ll find plenty of inspiring examples of inter faith work in the practical, everyday ministry of churches up and down the Diocese of St Albans. The Parish Church of All Saints, Bedford is one such example and is home to the diocesan Inter Faith Adviser, the Rev’d Jay MacLeod. Parish churches in multi-faith areas are hugely important not just to their local neighbourhoods but to the broader church because of their pioneering ventures. |
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| The story of Jesus healing the ten lepers (Luke 17.11-19) is instructive here, not just because the heretic foreigner is held up as an example of faith, but because the healing happened in the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee. Christ’s work of salvation often happens on a frontier, far from the centre of religious life. Churches in multi-faith neighbourhoods minister healing and compassion in the name of Christ, often in unseen and unsung ways. This work is given proper prominence in the excellent national report Presence and Engagement. |
Please contact the Revd Jay MacLeod or the Revd John Kiddle for help with mission in multi-faith areas.
