Vision for the Churches of Bristol for “Building Bristol as a City of Hope”

BristolCityOfHope.png

As Presidents of Churches Together in Greater Bristol / Together4Bristol, we give our full support to this Vision and encourage our churches to get involved in any way that they can.

“Building Bristol as a City of Hope” is a high profile catalytic project impacting the whole city. It is the outworking of a prophetic stirring to see Bristol as a “City of Hope”. It is the long term follow on from Hope Bristol 2018, which inspired over 1400 youth and volunteers to pursue lifelong mission, equipped and encouraged the local church to engage with their neighbourhood, built unity across churches and served Bristol's deprived communities. It was followed by a special gathering at City Hall on 5th May 2018 with 200 business, charity, civic and church leaders and the Mayor Marvin Rees to share the vision for “Building Bristol as a City of Hope”.

Over the next few years, we will encourage every church across the city to hang outside their church building a banner with the message “Building Bristol as a City of HOPE”. This will be a way of publicly showing this exciting united outward looking vision for a whole city that will:

  • Enable churches to serve their local communities in Bristol showing God’s love in practical ways and sharing the good news of Hope;

  • Inspire churches in their mission and ministry to their communities; including, community action projects, children’s clubs, youth cafes, family activities, events for the elderly, and evangelism teams;

  • Strengthen relationships and unity between the churches across denominations that leads to positive action; and

  • Encourage discipleship of young people and inspire and recruit volunteers for a variety of projects,  including breakfast clubs (so that no primary school child in the city starts the day hungry), homeless provision by the churches, helping with debt advice, and social prescribing.

 

City Mayor, Marvin Rees has commended "Building Bristol as a City of Hope":

“I am delighted to commend the "Building Bristol as a City of HOPE" project as it inspires HOPE for all across the City of Bristol. It is such an innovative city-wide project, reaching some of the neediest communities and will encourage a new generation of young people. It could be a ground-breaking example to other cities and towns”

 

Yours in Christ

 

  • Bishop Renford Brown, Chair, Bristol Black Churches Council

  • Revd Nigel Coles, Senior Regional Minister, West of England Baptist  Association

  • Majors Ian and Jean Harris, Divisional Commanders, Severn and Somerset Division, Salvation Army

  • The Rt Revd Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, Clifton Diocese

  • Revd Dr Jonathan Pye, Chair, Bristol Methodist District

  • Rt Revd Dr Lee Rayfield, Suffragan Bishop of Swindon and Acting Diocesan Bishop

  • Rob Scott-Cook, Celebration Network of churches and Woodlands Group of churches

  • Revd Ruth Whitehead, Moderator, South Western Synod, URC

 

PS To order ‘Bristol City of Hope’ banners contact Roger Allen: enabler.t4b@gmail.com  or

  • Download the design from here -  https://bit.ly/2HNjDJJ (There are currently two size options - 4m x 1m  and 2.4m x 90cm)

  • Banners can be ordered from these companies - 

  • 2.4m x 90cm banner - https://bit.ly/2FhIAaV (click on vinyl banners and prices vary depending on how quickly you would like delivery. (About £50 including Postage and packaging) 4 metres x 1metre banner - https://bit.ly/2I0bvTI (About £60 including Postage and packing).

  • Please fill in this form to let us know that you have ordered a banner, so we can keep track of churches putting up banners - https://bit.ly/2HTxEFy

  • When your banner arrives and is put up, please take a photo and share on your church social media (Facebook/twitter/instagram) and use the #BristolCityofHope

ChristianAction Bristolcommunity