C o E Synod Introduces New plans for future Church

According to 'Mission-shaped Church', a report presented to the General Synod of the Church of England last week, new plans were initiated for the Church of the future. Church plants, caf?churches, cell churches and other grass roots initiatives were reviewed as well as ways to relate to the local community.

The church plant movement has already been taking place in many dioceses and has now become 'traditional' within the church. Midweek services and Saturday cafes are gaining popularity as well.

"The existing parochial system alone is no longer able to fully deliver its underlying missionary purpose," the report states. "On this basis we strongly recommend an integrated strategy of neighborhood and network, of the new and the old, in partnership, never in competition," , said the Rt Rev Graham Cray, Bishop of Maidstone. "What the Archbishop of Canterbury has called a mixed economy".