Grace Church Beckenham

Pastor of the new Grace Church Beckenham, Matt Dew-Jones, says people in this new congregation are passionate about both Beckenham itself, and God’s grace. ‘God is a giver (in so many ways), and ultimately at the cross. As we see a world marked by taking …we love that [God] gives forgiveness and the power to change.’ In statements on their website, the church is clear it wants to ‘become generous like Jesus. We want our lives, our time, energy and money to be used to serve Jesus and His world’ and they want to be a place where ‘people like me love people who are not like me in a committed church family’.

Alongside three elders, around 30 other people have committed themselves to the work. Matt trained at Oak Hill Theological college and before moving to Beckenham worked as Associate Pastor for St Peter’s Barge in Canary Wharf. FIEC, Co-Mission and Christ Church Bromley have worked together to bring about the birth of this new church family.

Redeemer Church Folkestone

Redeemer Church Folkestone started via Zoom on 13 September. Led by Jonny Sutton, the new church is being supported by Emmanuel Church Canterbury, where Jonny was the Assistant Minister for two years, and the Kent Gospel Partnership.

The pioneering church family comprises 13 adults and six children, all from Emmanuel Canterbury. Some were already in Folkestone, but commuted up to Canterbury for church. Two couples, including Jonny and his wife, have moved from Canterbury to live in Folkestone.

Christ Church Newland

Meeting in the Newland Christian Centre, Christ Church Newland began in August and holds six services across the day. In the long term, they hope to meet in a local secondary school with fewer services when government guidance allows for larger gatherings.

Christ Church Newland is one of three independent Anglican churches in Hull that make up the Christ Church Network, led by a team of Network Elders with Scott McKay as Lead Pastor.

The churches in the Network are overseen by the Newland Christian Trust (NCT) which is both a Registered Christian Charity and a Limited Company. The mission of the NCT is to promote gospel work and church planting in Hull and further afield. The Trustees of the NCT are also Network Elders and are responsible for ensuring the Trust is well governed.

The new church is made up of people who were all former members of St John’s Newland. On the Christ Church Newland website, it is noted that they haven’t really left the Church of England, ‘but the Church of England has left us’ and they are still ‘unashamedly Anglican’. The presenting issues that have led to this move are ‘an increasing acceptance of an unbiblical agenda by the leadership of the Church of England’. The deeper issues ‘are the authority of Scripture, the lordship of Christ and the nature of what it means to be human’.

St John’s Newland will be overseen by Erik Wilson and services are due to resume there at the start of October.