Our work as Churches Together in England is focused around our eight strategic aims:
- To help Member Churches to share their own understanding of mission
- To find new ways to support intermediate and local ecumenism
- To find new ways to extend CTE’s valued role of relationship-building
- To create more opportunities for churches to do theology together
- To increase the capacity of CTE to speak into the public square
- To strengthen CTE’s own vision of its role and make this more widely known
- To develop the work of racial justice for CTE and its Member Churches
- To ensure CTE has the systems and structures in place to enable it to achieve its aims
Our strapline as Churches Together in England is: One in Christ Jesus, engaged in God’s mission, empowered by the Spirit.
One in Christ Jesus
Nationally, Churches Together in England brings together more than 50 Member Churches from many diverse traditions. Together we unite around CTE’s statement of belief.
Locally, churches from a wide range of traditions are working together in many different ways, and there are local Churches Together groups all across our nation. Some local congregations also share church buildings and worship together, leading to hundreds of Local Ecumenical Partnerships.
County bodies draw together local Churches Together groups and other local expressions of Christian unity, working ecumenically at an intermediate level. CTE offers a range of resources, training and staff support to Ecumenical Officers, particularly those working at a county level.
CTE also works alongside three National Agencies, as well as more than 70 Charities and Networks in Association – a wide range of voluntary groups and charities whose work has an ecumenical dimension, working with Christians of many different traditions.
Engaging with God’s mission
As Churches Together in England, we have a vision to reach our nation with the good news of Jesus Christ as we seek to serve Him together.
Our heart is to see the churches in England collaborating in the Missio Dei – working together more closely in the mission of God, which is our calling in every generation.
And we want to celebrate where churches are collaborating together, showing God’s love and making the gospel of Christ known in our nation.
Empowered by the Spirit
As a family of churches, we are dependent on the Holy Spirit to empower, guide and direct us as we dream and plan together, and as we continue to discover what it means to love one another deeply as brothers and sisters in Christ.
This Pilgrim Prayer was written as part of the historic Swanwick Declaration – part of the process which led to the founding of CTE in 1990.
Its words remain as true today as they did then:
Lord God, we thank you
for calling us into the company
of those who trust in Christ
and seek to obey his will.
May your Spirit guide and strengthen us
in mission and service to your world;
for we are strangers no longer
but pilgrims together on the way to your Kingdom.
Amen.
More about CTE
Churches Together in England is served by a small staff team who aim to support and resource the wide range of ecumenical relationships across our nation – in person, through training, and by providing resources, information and good news stories on our website.
Demonstrating our commitment to mission, CTE has a staff member dedicated to evangelisation and mission, encouraging fruitful collaboration as we share together in God’s mission. We also have a staff member dedicated to Pentecostal, Charismatic and multi-cultural relations, and another responsible for supporting church unity at the county level (Intermediate Ecumenism).
CTE staff members write, speak and present papers to aid biblical and theological reflection on a wide range of topics. We also support and encourage theological dialogues between denominations, and while we do not formally sponsor these, we do share their outcomes with the wider church family and host occasional day events.
Staff work under the direction of the Enabling Group, which brings together the representatives of our national Member Churches as well as Ecumenical Officers from across the regions of England. As a whole, Churches Together in England is represented by six Presidents.
CTE’s Forum is a unique gathering held every three to four years, bringing together over three hundred representatives of Member Churches, Intermediate Bodies, Charities and Networks in Association and Coordinating Groups.
In the UK, Churches Together in England has partner bodies in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as working alongside Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
Internationally we relate with the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches.
Find out more about CTE.