The Church must learn to carry out mission in this way, Dr Williams told them, if it is to meet the modern world. Therefore, they were told to live out the gospel in the 21st century.
The Thursday gathering drew 12 people from across the country to make up the ‘Fresh Expressions’ team, which has been given the task of searching out, supporting, and encouraging new expressions of the Church wherever they found them, revealed the Church Times.
The licences given out were signed by both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, and so will not come into effect until Oct. 5th when Dr Sentamu legally takes up the role of Archbishop of York.
Rob Marshall, one of the 12 joining the group, told that the commissioning had been very touching. He told the Church Times, “The Archbishop of Canterbury said we were fishermen, and that we must fish in deep waters. The Church was being uniquely challenged to cast out into deep waters as never before.”The Fresh Expressions team will be led by Rev Steven Croft, and its members are to tour across England to various parishes attempting to encourage powerful worship and good practices. In addition, the members will also act as messengers, spreading news of other successful schemes around the country so that troubled or struggling parishes could follow the more successful ones.
At present 225 groups have registered themselves on the Fresh Expressions website, which is now said to represent in excess of 20,000 people.
