Bishop John Perumbalath joined other Christian leaders on Monday 22nd January at the start of the week of prayer for Christian Unity. The gathering was the first to bring leaders together to see how they can work better together and create a greater impact across our region.
Alongside our bishop were Bishop Tom Neylon from the Archdiocese, URC Moderator, Revd Geoff Felton, Revd Dr Sheryl Anderson Methodist Chair), Revd Phil Jump from the Baptist Union and the Very Revd Dr Sue Jones alongside many other church leaders.
The participants heard an interesting presentation on the work and impact on Together Liverpool who work with churches who are doing social action. Revd James Green, Chief Executive explained how they bring together groups of churches to launch new sustainable and measurable projects. James outlined how they work through learning communities in a process that they have been working with the Church of England but could be used elsewhere. James also said that over the next three years they will work to launch projects with a focus on asylum seekers, training churches to welcome displaced people and deliver county lines training. Finally, he mentioned an ambitious project to measure the impact of social action projects across the diocese.
James said “If working collaboratively is about more than words but shared practices and learning at every level then finding ways to facilitate that as we tackle the injustices in our community is vital".
You can find out more about Together Liverpool here.
Commenting on the event Bishop John said “Unity is important as Jesus prayed that we shall be one. Unity itself is part of our witness in a divided world. It was encouraging and powerful to hear and share the stories of working together in witness and service, while praying together in and for unity”