NECN: The National Estate Churches Network
Charity Registered in England & Wales, No 1104767
Registered Office: Bishop’s House, Orsett Road, Horndon-on-the Hill, Essex, SS17, 8NS
www.nationalestatechurches.org
Charity Registered in England & Wales, No 1104767
Registered Office: Bishop’s House, Orsett Road, Horndon-
NECN Conferences 2008: Bristol Conference Report
The Bristol Conference took place on the 9th October 2008 at St Andrew’s Church Centre in Avonmouth on the outskirts of Bristol. Avonmouth is a mixture of small terraced and also council built housing so most of us felt at home.
In the morning Bishop Laurie chaired two sessions and introduced David Greenfield, the network’s Development Officer.
The Keynote speaker was Cllr Peter Hammond, who is the Deputy Leader Bristol City Council and an Executive Member for Cohesion and Raising Achievement. He spoke from personal experience of the dilemmas of living on the boundary of church and state, as he is engaged with political policy making as well as being a member of a larger church situated in the inner city but drawing from a wider area of the City.
Dave Duggan, who is the Assistant Director for Stronger Communities, Cohesion and Equality Government of Office of the South West, spoke carefully about the policy issues he deals with and about his sense of these issues beyond the bureaucratic.
Lunch was followed with Andy Turner who led a case study to help us make concrete some of the issues we had heard about in the morning.
There were then 2 small group sessions
▪ one led by Simon Bale which looked we at how addressed the gap between a).the organic development in communities and b).bureaucratic policy of the state; and the place of faith in negotiating this difference.
▪ Heather Williams and Jenny Low told us of a fresh expression on a housing estate in South Bristol and inspired us with their persistence and determination.
About 25 people attended. They were mostly from Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire with a notable addition from Tyne and Weir.