Churches Together in Brislington and St Anne's

CTBSA is an informal collection of churches active in the Brislington and St Anne's neighbourhoods of south east Bristol. They are listed on the right together with their relevant 'champions'.

CTBSA is a newly restructured collection of these churches. Read on for further details...

• What does CTBSA do?
• Want to know more?

A little bit of history

Around 1990 all of the above, except Wellspring Church (which didn't exist at the time) joined together as a formal Local Ecumenical Partnership, complete with covenant and council, and all the usual bureaucracy and structure of a fully-fledged LEP. Over the ensuing 10 to 15 years a great deal of lively and valuable events and projects came and went under the name of the LEP. These included joint services, shared fund raising events for Christian Aid and other various things. Perhaps most significant among all of these projects was (and remains) Lazer, the young people's Friday evening club run by volunteers from the LEP churches, and inhabiting the URC church on Wick Road. This is a lively and ongoing project that has seen many hundreds of young people through its doors in the years since it began in 1999).

As the years passed, the initial inspiration of bringing six disparate churches together inevitably changed. Clergy came and went, congregations transformed and needs and context evolved. Many long-lasting relationships had begun between various people, and the ecumenical thinkign behind the original LEP continues.

However, over the past few years the commitment towards the formal LEP structure has waned. The desire to work together remains, but fewer and fewer are prepared to maintain the formal council and all that entails. Consequently, on January 24th 2010, the LEP was formally terminated with a service of thanksgiving for all that had been achieved, at St Cuthbert's Church on Wick Road.

It was always the intention to maintain ecumenical links in Brislington, however. Added to this, Wellspring Community Church had never been formally welcomed into teh original LEP, but had subsequently become a majr player in the whole initiative. Therefore, from the ashes of the LEP, in May 2010 has arisen a new way of workign together that is less structured and more open to the dynamic nature of churches in the area.

This is what we are now calling Churches Together in Bristlington and St Anne's. CTBSA for short.

What does CTBSA do?

CTBSA is built around a desire to work together, on issues that affect us all, and which provide a mission opportunity in our local neighbourhood. We recognise that churches are not islands, but must coexist with the world around them. We also recognise that people are more likely to work together around projects than around a more nebulous notion of ecumenism.

Therefore, the new CTBSA has action built into it.

There is no formal chair, no formal council and no formal minutes or funding. Rather, each project stads or falls on the basis of those who are prepared to get involved. Each church provides one or more 'champions' who communicate the actions of the CTBSA in their own church, but who are not expected to be the driving force behind each particular project that we take on.

Want to know more?

If you are interested in finding out more about CTBSA in your own church, click on the link for your church above. This will give you  a list of current champions.

There is also a mailing list that you can join. Simply enter your details in the box on the right.