BLACK CHRISTIANITY AND
SACRED SPACE IN LONDON
CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES
The Being Built Together project
Being Built Together project
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Is a partnership between the University of Roehampton,
Southwark for Jesus, and Churches Together in South
London
We have funders from both church and local authority
agencies.
The project is led by Dr Andrew Rogers, Senior
Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of
Roehampton, and is part of the Research Group in
Ministerial Theology.
These slides are for personal reference only. Contact
bbt@roehampton.ac.uk if you have further queries.
Headline statistics
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Non-white church attendance increased by 19%
(from 1998-2005)
English Pentecostal churches grew by 34% in
1998-2005
UK Pentecostal churches grew by 27% in 20052010
Being Built Together team
Being Built Together
Being Built Together interim report
www.roehampton.ac.uk/beingbuilttogether
London Borough of Southwark
nBMC demographics (as of Nov ‘12)
Use Classes A ~ D
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A1 ~ Shops
A2 ~ Financial and
professional services
A3 ~ Food and drink
B1 ~ Business
B2 ~ General industrial
B3-B7 ~ Special
industrial groups
B8 ~ Storage or
distribution
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C1 ~ Hotels and hostels
C2 ~ Residential
institutions
C3 ~ Dwellinghouses
D1 ~ Non-residential
institutions
D2 ~ Assembly and
leisure
Sui Generis
Use Classes D1 & D2 detail
Class D1. Non-residential institutions
Any use not including a residential use —
(a) for the provision of any medical or health
services except the use of premises attached
to the residence of the consultant or
practitioner,
(b) as a crêche, day nursery or day centre,
(c) for the provision of education,
(d) for the display of works of art (otherwise
than for sale or hire),
(e) as a museum,
(f) as a public library or public reading room,
(g) as a public hall or exhibition hall,
(h) for, or in connection with, public
worship or religious instruction.
Class D2. Assembly and leisure
Use as —
(a) a cinema,
(b) a concert hall,
(c) a bingo hall or casino,
(d) a dance hall,
(e) a swimming bath, skating rink, gymnasium
or area for other indoor or outdoor sports or
recreations, not involving motorised vehicles
or firearms.
Southwark and Faith Premises
Pastor Eaaron
People understand themselves, so somebody from
Ghana sees the church as, oh, this is from my home. So
she or he feels comfortable.
And also language plays a role. After the service is
over you can get somebody to talk to, somebody to
relate to, especially those who are not elite or who
have not been to school, you know, they have trouble
and they can speak to [someone], and that is one of
the facts.
Pastor Solomon
P: And straight away because we are ethnic driven, people do not live locally.
A: Yes.
P: They are coming in from north, south, east and west, they drive in, they
park, they come into the service.
A: Yeah.
…
P: And then you’re trapped in a dangerous dynamic because the more you
move the more ethnic you remain. When you finally settle down you can
consider trying to be more relevant to the local population but because
you’ve been consolidating your ethnicity, you find that by the time you’ve
settled down you really need some kind of genetic mutation to happen.
Pastor Justyn
I hope that when this [Being Built Together research] is in
the public domain it will harmonise the relationship
between churches and Southwark council so that
Southwark council appreciate that churches are adding
value. The churches are actually a force to be reckoned
with in the community, that most of these kids that are out
on the streets are being taken care of by the pastors and
churches without the churches blowing their trumpet to say
this is what we are doing... So I’m hoping that somehow
[this research] will also get out there for people to know
that churches are not here just to make noise, we are here
to transform, like I say we are agents of you know
transformation, we want to transform this Borough.
Four emerging proposals
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Facilitate informal networks between leaders of
nBMCs and other local churches
Work on ways of enabling good hosting / sharing
practices
Sharing good practice and enhancing
communication with Council planning department
Seek to lobby at the policy level through the final
report and partner / link organisations