CTB45 COVENANT

Churches Together in B45

(Rubery, Rednal, Longbridge and Frankley)

We, the Clergy and People of:-

• the Beacon Church Centre, Whetty Lane;
• Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Catholic Church, Leach Green Lane;
• Longbridge Methodist Church, Bristol Road South;
• St Chad’s Church, New Road;
• St Stephen the Martyr, Edgewood Road,
• St Christopher’s Church, Frankley and
• Grace Community Church, Rubery,

unite in proclaiming our faith in One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ the Son is Lord and saviour according to the Scriptures.

Whilst this Covenant shall in no way weaken our ties and responsibilities to our individual Churches we acknowledge that our divisions are damaging to all of us and hinder the work of Christ in the World. We repent of all that is sinful in these divisions.

We give thanks for the fellowship and unity that have grown between our Congregations. We welcome the developing links with other Churches in our area, and the possibility of a wider membership of this Covenant.

We rejoice in the rich variety of our Christian traditions and we seek to share them with each other in so far as the official discipline of our Churches will allow.

We now re-commit ourselves to pray and work together for the realisation of the unity of Christ’s people in Rubery, Rednal, Longbridge and Frankley, in order that we may be able to effectively preach the Gospel.

We believe that by working together in the Spirit of love, openness and mutual respect, we shall be led to the fullness of that unity which is Christ’s prayer for His Church.

For the greater glory of God and in love for our neighbour, we also Covenant together to share our life as fully as possible.

We shall do together all that we can, in order that we may share, hold in common and offer to the World those gifts which we have received and still hold in separation. In trust we will allow others to undertake work we cannot do ourselves.

We commit ourselves to Worship, Study and Service by continuing:

• to develop ways of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of our neighbourhood;
• to worship together at regular intervals, sharing annually in the worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity;
• to seek ways of celebrating and studying together our common Christian faith and of sharing our traditional liturgical seasons;
• to work together for peace and justice sharing in the service of our area, the region and the World, which includes our support of Christian Aid and special projects;
• to encourage the Clergy to continue to pray and meet;
• to commit ourselves to develop such other activities amongst this group of Churches, and others in our area, or between two or three of them, which makes Christ’s living presence recognised in our community

The existence of this Covenant has involved the good will of all the Churches at local and regional level. While recognising that future appointments of Clergy remain the sole prerogative of each Church Authority, they affirm that such appointments will be made in the spirit of the Covenant.

To these end, we covenant together for another period of five years from this 28th day of November 2004.

Signatories: the Clergy of the Churches, with two ‘Lay’ signatories; A ‘Church Leader’ from each Church; The General Secretary of Birmingham Churches Together.

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Notes:

1. The Covenant was originally signed in 1992, reviewed and re-signed in 1997 and reviewed, amended and re-signed in 2004.