Fresh Expressions Week at the College
Monday 18th January 2010
As students came back for the Lent Term 2010, the College suspended the normal timetable for a week (18-22 January) to concentrate on mission, pioneer ministry and fresh expressions.
During the week, the whole College visited the Diocese of Liverpool to consider pioneer ministries there, and worked with visiting lecturers on mission and fresh expressions of worship.
At the invitation of Liverpool Diocese, students from the College spent a day at St James' House, Liverpool, engaging with a range of presentations and fresh expressions worship. They were led by members of the Diocese's Pioneer Ministry Team, including:
- Phil Potter, Director of Pioneer Ministry, Diocese of Liverpool;
- Linda Jones, Church Growth Team Leader;
- Richard White, Canon for Mission and Evangelism, and Pioneer Minister of Dream, a network church made up of groups exploring creative approaches to Christian spirituality
- Frank Hinds, Pioneer Youth Minister, Diocese of Liverpool.
Students then spent several days back at College working on mission and fresh expressions of worship with Visiting Lecturers - Paul Roberts, Dean of Non-Residential Training at St Michael's Theological College, Llandaff, and Sue Wallace, Assistant Priest at the Church of St Michael-le-Belfry, York.
Towards the end of the week, students worked in groups, under the guidance of Sue Wallace, on a liturgy for College worship. Students will also work together preparing for, and ministering at, one of the monthly Transcendence services at York Minster.
Commenting on this venture, College Principal Joe Kennedy said: "Mission has one of the central places in the programmes of formation we offer.
"At Mirfield, some ordinands are preparing in a concentrated way for pioneering priesthood. But all our ordinands need to be engaging with and preparing for ministries which bring together in imaginative ways pioneering and inherited patterns of Church life.
"This week of study and reflection will enable all of our students, bringing with them a wide variety of experiences and church backgrounds, to build on previous learning.
"We are grateful to all our partners in this project for the expertise and enthusiasm they are bringing to it."
To find out more about pioneer ministry training and formation at the College of the Resurrection, click here.
To read more about this story on the Fresh Expressions website, click here.
Photographs of the Transcendence service at York Minster, copyright the Revd Sue Wallace. Used with permission.