Dear Friends, 
It was with great sadness and distress that we witnessed the recent violence and unrest in our towns and cities across the U.K.  We are aware that some of you will be in communities where the tension, riots and the violence took place.  It seems that hopefully the worst of the unrest has passed, but we should not be complacent about what has been revealed in this time about many people in communities across the UK: that there are lots of folk who feel excluded and marginalised and do not feel like they have adequate ways or means of communicating that.  There are many who have been made to feel fearful and unwelcome in their communities.
It was great to see that there are also many people willing to stand up to racism and violence, to come alongside people, and to peacefully get in the way. We have much to lament, and much to celebrate too. A photo appeared in the media on Monday 5th August of a group from a mosque offering food to those who were shouting abuse. A BBC reporter in Sunderland noted that the day after the riot local people in the community came together to help clear up, and a group of young women took gifts into the police station to thank officers for their involvement. 
We recognise there are no quick fixes to heal the deep division that has been exposed in our communities.  In the very heart of our values Urban Expression has a commitment to Peace, “a vision of justice, peace and human flourishing for the city and all its inhabitants.”  Let us pray for one another as we seek the shalom of each community that we have chosen to call home.  Let us challenge injustice, prejudice and violence with humility, love and grace.  May we have the wisdom to root out evil but recognise it’s not about winning an argument with our neighbour. That “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

In peace, Alex & Barney
​
Blessed are you peacemakers, for you will be called the children of God.
After the wrecking,
the window smashing,
the overturned cars
and the flame licked lives
came hope's weary messengers
blowing dustpan kisses,
making it better,
each sweep of the brush
a teary love letter.
Wearing humanity
light as a feather
from the back
of a peace dove,
repainting the town
the colour of love.  – Harry Gallagher

Sara Barron participated in the European Baptist Federation (EBF) gathering in January with her 'children in urban situations' specialist hat on.  She writes:
What a privilege to spend time with inspiring, enthusiastic youth and children workers from across Europe. Very different contexts with various sized unions and churches coming together to explore what God might be saying and how we can best join in. One of the conversation threads that emerged was around how young people feel alone in their faith despite the more global feel to our lives in other areas. We asked: how do we help young people to discover others with similar values and with a passion for Jesus that will broaden their connection? In what ways are young people wanting to connect with spirituality in our communities? 
In all our conversations and reflections we held space for one another recognising that relationships are key in all the strands we explored. Where we know people we are more likely to find peace ways, more likely to see others views favourably and we have more opportunity to speak into each others lives. Learning from one another.

The presence of so many young leaders felt encouraging both for the future children and young people's work but also for the innovation of the church. Many are asking questions about how and why we do church in the way we do. Many are asking about church planting amongst the youth. Many would like to see thriving churches which connect with community in social action as part of sharing the good news message of Jesus. ​

We are also excited to report that two new coordinators have been appointed to start in January, both with regional responsibilities, and we look forward to welcoming them into the coordinators' team.
​Carmel Murphy-Elliott will be our regional coordinator in the north of England. She is a long-standing UE mission partner, now living in Manchester, a Baptist minister, and one of the core team members of Urban Life.
Dave Mann will be our regional coordinator in London and the south-east of England. He is one of the leaders of Bonny Downs Baptist Church in East London and is involved in various Christian organisations. Dave is the first coordinator we have appointed from outside UE, so we look forward to the fresh perspectives he will bring.

​After nearly 27 years with Urban Expression Stuart Murray Williams will be stepping down as team leader of the coordinators' team, having been involved since it began in 1997.  We are delighted to announce that Alex Ellish will be leading the team of coordinators from January 2024.  Alex has been a member of the team for several years and has been involved in two local UE initiatives – in Tower Hamlets and Harold Hill. Her role will be to provide strategic direction and oversight to the team of coordinators that support UE mission partners.  Alex will also continue as the minister of Amott Road Baptist Church in Peckham.

In an interesting and unexpected development - whilst he will no longer be a member of the coordinating team Stuart and his wife Sian will be moving from Canterbury to Peckham early in the year where they will become members of Alex’s church!  Stuart will also continue to organise the Crucible Course and share involvement in the Black Light Course in partnership with the Ascension Trust.

We are delighted to welcome Urban Life within the Urban Expression community.  
Having operated as a CIO for a few years, Urban Life were becoming increasingly unsure whether it was the best container for their work in the long term. Earlier this year their Trustees concluded that, while there was significant energy and uptake for the work, the amount of time and energy needed to ‘run a charity’ was disproportional to the output and, therefore, untenable going forward. Having had a close relationship since Urban Life’s inception the trustees at Urban Expression agreed to provide an organisational home for their continuing work. The values and activity of both organisations are complementary and we are already finding new and exciting ways of working together that are mutually beneficial.
​You can find out more about Urban Life - Carmel Murphy-Elliot and Anna Rudick, and the work that they do via their new https://www.urbanlife.org/

We presently have two coordinator vacancies, both for one day per week; they are geographically based.  One in the north of England and one in London and the South-east of England.  Job descriptions and details about the application process can be found by clicking the button below.
​

We have enjoyed a strong relationship for many years with CURBS (children in urban situations). We have featured their activities in previous newsletters and they have often led children’s programmes at our events.
In January, our trustees and theirs agreed to a full merger. CURBS will shortly cease to exist as a separate charity and will operate under the auspices of Urban Expression. This will not only reduce administration and costs, but will enable us to work even more closely together. Sara Barron, CURBS’ development worker, who is already a mission partner, has joined the team of coordinators, and the chair of CURBS, Peter Davison, has become a UE trustee.For more information about CURBS, have a look at https://curbsproject.org.uk/.

From the Curbs trustees:
Curbs will remain Curbs as you know it. We will have the same heart, values and indwelling in the Lord’s word. We will have the same wonderful worker – Sara, who will still work with her Curbs hat on, but we will now work within a larger charity whose values, passion for urban ministry and vision align with ours, allowing us to do more than we ever could have done by ourselves.We will no longer be our own charity, but the identity and presence of Curbs will not change, if anything, we hope it will just grow stronger.

It's great to be able to look back over 25 years of Urban Expression, knowing that new and exciting stories lie ahead!
Urban Expression celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2022. We began in 1997 during the so-called Decade of Evangelism. Church planting was high on the agenda in many denominations, but most of this was taking place in affluent areas where there were already many churches. Urban Expression began as an experiment to find ways of incarnating the gospel creatively in some marginalised urban neighbourhoods. We did not expect to still be going in 2022!This is the first Impact Report we have produced. It is our attempt to reflect on our activities, achievements, struggles and ongoing challenges. To invite friends and fellow-travellers to celebrate with us, and to hold ourselves accountable to those who have supported us (and sometimes criticised us) through the years. We share it with you and welcome any feedback.

​To view an online version, click here

Some pages from the report

​We want to share with all wider UE community, news about the brilliant time together we had for the 25 year celebration weekend. 

In total 84 adults and children participated in our festival weekend, either staying at the superb Somersal Cottages venue in Derbyshire for the weekend or as day visitors. Several others were unable to be there, due to previously booked events, and some who had planned to join in succumbed to covid infections. 

Initial feedback on the event included words like ‘amazing’ and ‘wonderful’, which is very encouraging, and there is already enthusiasm for doing something like this again, maybe in 2024 and probably in the same venue, which worked brilliantly.

Barney took photos and we have uploaded a selection of these here.

We had some lovely greetings sent in before the weekend by people who have journeyed with UE over the years, you can find a link to them also.

All in all it was a wonderful community time together, celebrating of the past 25 years, and a hopeful and encouraging look forward to the future for Urban Expression.

It's been a really special Easter time, the team and community exploring Jesus is growing. We had a lovely family fun afternoon in the church garden with a nature trail, egg hunt and leaf threading. We continue to have café gatherings with two recent baptisms and always lots of interactive items - ie mummifying one of the young people! The foodbank is ever busy and we provide lots of advice and signposting. The local community are taking leadership roles in the foodbank, a new small group and coffee morning. Its always real, fun and there is never a dull moment!