Christians in Canterbury construct new "cathedral"

Christians in Canterbury this week began the construction of a new cathedral – this time with plastic bricks - symbolising their commitment to being good news in their community.

Canterbury, famed worldwide for its cathedral, and considered the traditional home of Christianity in the UK, was the venue for the opening night of the An Agenda for Change Tour on Tuesday 23 April.

Around 150 people gathered at the St Andrews United Reform Church just inside of the old city walls to hear Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, expound a renewed vision for Evangelicalism in the UK.

Edwards, supported by a multimedia presentation, spoke on rehabilitating evangelicalism to mean good news, presenting Christ credibly and closed with a call for evangelicals to engage in long-term strategic change.  

Edwards used the image of building a Cathedral to illustrate the long term commitment needed by the Church towards spiritual and social change, rather than quick headlines, to ensure that the fruits of our ministry would still exist in a thousand years.

It was this analogy that caught the imagination of the audience during the discussion time after the talk. A wide ranging conversation looked at how the churches could engage with the positive and negative aspects of their Christian heritage, typified by the high profile Cathedral, in order to best proclaim Jesus and serve the community in Canterbury.

Afterwards members of the audience took the Cathedral analogy further by laying the foundations of the plastic cathedral. Each brick laid was inscribed with a specific commitment on how the builder would be good news in their community. In this way the commitments of Christians will form the building blocks of the Cathedral and long-term strategic change in society.

The commitments forming the Cathedral's foundations in Canterbury were added to the following night at Eastbourne and will continue to be added to at each of the 27 centres, around the UK, that are part of the An Agenda for Change tour.

Make sure you attend at a venue near you, or join the conversation of how evangelicals can be good news on our interactive website www.eauk.org/a4c.