Estates evangelism

To Launde Abbey (left), a retreat house in Leicestershire,  for a two day meeting of the national Church of England estates evangelism project.

An estate parish is described as one with more than 500 units of social housing.

They are reckoned to be 2,500 such parishes in England, of which 185 are in the Diocese of Southwark (the second highest number in the Church of England).

The goal of the estates evangelism initiative is to have a living, worshipping, Christian presence on every social housing estate in the country.

The goal of the two-day meeting at Launde was to draw together partner organisations, represents from the dioceses with the highest number of estates, and members of the project's task group, to review progress and make plans for the future.

The residential ended with each member making a personal commitment to the work of sharing the good news with the people of the estates in our country.