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introduction

by the Chair of the Working Group

Breaking New Ground: church planting in the Church of England was

published in 1994.

1

It set out to recommend good practice for church

planting, and to address difficulties raised by a small number of

unauthorized plants. It was of particular importance as the first formal

document in which the Church of England owned `planting' as a missionary

strategy.

In 2002 the (then) Board of Mission set up a new working group to review

the original report, to assess progress and to consider new developments.

In particular it was recognized that a variety of new forms of church in

mission were emerging or being put into practice within the Church of

England. The new working group was to review these `fresh expressions 

of church'.

Breaking New Ground saw church planting as `a supplementary strategy

that enhances the essential thrust of the parish principle'.

2

Perhaps the

most significant recommendation of this current report is that this is no

longer adequate. The nature of community has so changed (and was

changing long before 1994) that no one strategy will be adequate to fulfil

the Anglican incarnational principle in Britain today.

3

Communities are 

now multi layered, comprising neighbourhoods, usually with permeable

boundaries, and a wide variety of networks, ranging from the relatively local

to the global. Increased mobility and electronic communications technology

have changed the nature of community.

It is clear to us that the parochial system remains an essential and central

part of the national Church's strategy to deliver incarnational mission. 

But the existing parochial system alone is no longer able fully to deliver 

its underlying mission purpose. We need to recognize that a variety of

integrated missionary approaches is required. A mixed economy of parish

churches and network churches will be necessary, in an active partnership

across a wider area, perhaps a deanery.

In addition, our diverse consumer culture will never be reached by one

standard form of church. The working group has evaluated a wide variety 

of `fresh expressions of church'. All have strengths and weaknesses, and

none are appropriate for all circumstances. In particular the dominance of

consumerism presents a major challenge to Christian faithfulness. What is

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