All Hallows Vision 2021-2023
Our vision for All Hallows is to be a compassionate community, seeking to make Christ known in the world, confident in our discipleship and growing in creative ways. We seek to be a loving and energised, fruitful and growing community, growing spiritually, in our love for God and love for others, growing in compassion and numbers.
We commit to following Christ’s way of loving service to others, of being a beacon of light and hope in the world, of speaking the word of God, teaching the Christian faith and deepening our own faith, open to learn from God and from others. We celebrate that we are a diverse community, and we will find ways to celebrate that diversity and make All Hallows a place of welcome, nurture and safety for all.
We cherish our rich history and are inspired by it, and will seek to connect the history of the church with the Christian faith in new ways to make All Hallows a place of encounter with God for all who visit.
We want to be a church where the glory of God shines through - its people, its worship and prayer, its loving service, its actions and words, its study of scripture and learning, its care for God’s creation, its history and beautiful building, its commitment to justice in all its forms.
Confident Disciples
- Renew our Sunday and midweek worship as we come out of Covid-19, refreshing our liturgy and music, incorporating The Square Mile Choral Scholars.
- Build on the strong interest through the pandemic in studying the Bible and Christian life study groups and develop our Christian studies for a wider audience, including online material, podcasts, seminars.
- Build our skills as an Inclusive Church. Invest in our people with training on listening and welcoming skills (City Guides, Welcomers, Congregation, PCC).
- Refresh our relationship with Clio’s Company to expand our connection with young people; connects to our history, interfaith, local communities.
- Integrate the heritage and history of All Hallows more fully with the Christian faith in creative and accessible ways.
Compassionate Communities
- Develop the Parish Network as a wider Pastoral Group to help support and develop the life of the congregation.
- Building upon and strengthening our relationships with: -
- Local Community: supporting First Love Foundation by facilitating connections with City business and local people for Tower Talent; speaks to our deep interests in addressing homelessness, hunger, family breakdown, supporting different age ranges.
- Environment: A Rocha - Green City, EcoChurch, EcoChampion, church’s environmental footprint
- World Outreach: Christian Aid/JustShare.
- Homelessness: thread connection with City homelessness hub and wider Deanery involvement.
- Project coming out of Covid-19 – loneliness, local young people.
- Solar panels roof project - as we seek to address the urgent repair needed for our two roofs, revisiting City support through their Climate Agenda, making use of skills and experience of the community and building on our longstanding work to reduce our environmental footprint.
Creative Growth
- Develop the local Cluster with neighbouring churches St Mary at Hill and St Margaret Pattens for worship, community life and mission.
- Grow the connections with the local residential population to grow the regular congregation. Developing a project for young families.
- Build on the 2020/21 growth in online community and develop for the future.
- Continuing to build upon our world connections of faith through our Taizé community, our link with the Church of the Epiphany NY, and the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf (Yemen Eye Clinic).
- Continue to engage in all key aspects of civic life, ‘making space’ to build relationships, partnerships and deepening pastoral care; being part of the ecosytem of the City.
Prayer – The foundation
- Find a place in the church to permanently display our beautiful icon of St Ethelburga, who inspires our theme of prayerful lives, links to women’s leadership and education in faith communities.
- Create prayer stations around the church.
- Create a Tourists to Pilgrims theme as we offer a deeper engagement for our visitors.
You are invited to share your own thoughts and ideas about our All Hallows Vision by speaking in person to our ministry team (Katherine, Sophia, Martin) or by emailing via: parish@ahbtt.org.uk