Earmarked by government as a target growth area in the South East the population of Milton Keynes is set to double in the next 25 years with an average of more than 2,000 new homes per year. Sally Jarman explores how the faith communities are responding to expansion on this speed and scale and what the churches are doing to help sustain the soul of this ever–evolving city. And below, school chaplain Pauline Barnes describes how the recently opened Christ the Sower Ecumenical school (pictured far right) in the west of the city embodies the churches’ vision for the future.
Negotiating our way around the city’s infamous parkways and roundabouts, Milton Keynes newly appointed redevelopment chaplain stops the car and pointed to green fields stretching out to the west of us. Consultation is already underway to discuss development of this area he explains. Another new community set to emerge.
‘It’s a fairly unique situation,’ the Revd Tim Clapton muses; ‘In most towns of any size expansion would mean about 1,000 new houses. Here there are nearly three times that amount each year, radiating ever further out from the urban centre. A new school opens every year. On top of that there is ongoing regeneration of older areas of the city. People are barely surprised when what was a supermarket one week is an office block or housing the next.’
As chaplain for such a growing population, how does Tim think the church could continue to reach people?
‘It’s mindblowing for faith communities in some ways,’ he agreed, ‘but I think there is a sense of excitement, of frontiership and of opportunity.’
One of the challenges is the change in many people’s perception of community says Tim:
‘Almost everyone who lives here has come from some other place bringing with them their visions and aspirations for life. There is a desire for individuality. They have no family history to root them in one community and it’s easy to travel around, so you often find people living in one area driving right across the city to attend a church of their choice rather than be part of the one where they live.
‘They may work away from the city and communicate and interact not with neighbours in person as much as through texting friends anytime, anywhere.
‘We are having to learn that there are different ways of being a community. Our church communities are having to work out what these changes mean. In terms of expansion they are asking the question: how will they organise themselves with God.’
In some of the new estates to the west of the city parts of the modern church community has organised itself to include groups of people worshipping in each other’s homes. It’s an example of a different expression of faith.
A creative approach to worship says Tim: ‘People looking at how they can best be a church in their locality. Investigating fresh expressions of what being a Christian means.
‘I’d love to have teams of Christians knocking on doors in the new estates just finding out about people and what their spiritual needs and hopes are.’
Stephen Norrish of the Christian Foundation – a multi-denominational charity which runs community development projects across the city – supports the view that, with a future of double the current population and probably half a dozen fewer Church-supported posts, faith communities need to find different methods of engagement, not necessarily replicating the traditional methods of paid ministry: ‘We need to be creative about how we do church and what it might look like.’
Both agree that in today’s more culturally diverse society engaging with the city’s communities means exploring interfaith dialogue. In recent years the mainstream denomination churches of the Milton Keynes Churches Council have increasingly linked in with other faith communities with a range of projects.
Says Tim: ‘The first people of other faiths to come to the city 15-20 years ago formed friendship groups which have continued and flourished. One aim during my chaplaincy is to work with and alongside these groups, ensuring dialogue, partnership and real insight into the human issues in all communities brought about by ongoing change and expansion.
A number of grass roots projects tackling current issues in the city are already seeing success.
The Revd Dr Mary Cotes, Ecumenical Moderator for the Mission Partnership of the Milton Keynes Church explains: ‘The church here has never set itself apart from the community. It is a partnership based on respect.
‘The ethos of the Christian Foundation is that community is a place where people are included. The most desperate are not left out but are valued and respected and encouraged to fulfil their potential. We all learn together.’
In an area with such a highly mobile population, younger than the national average and often with no familial roots nearby, the church identified issues with stability, health and education for some youngsters in both new and regenerating parts of the city.
In response the Foundation has been running a programme of extended training for excluded 18-24 year-olds aimed at helping them gain skills and find employment through routes most appropriate to their needs.
On the day I visit the Foundation’s bright and airy centre in Wolverton is abuzz with young people attending parenting courses. Healthy eating and sustainability is the focus of another Foundation project on the Stantonbury Campus with the creation of allotments, the organic vegetables from which become ingredients in meals at the campus’ Eating Point café. ‘Get there early or there’s nothing left,’ advised Mary: ‘It has gained quite a reputation.’
Elsewhere the church’s outreach provides temporary accommodation bedsits for homeless youngsters along with personal advisers and support to get them back on their feet. There is a family support service and hundreds of smaller projects by individual congregations.
Mary says: ‘The projects have evolved with the city. The churches’ role is not just pastoral. The Mission Partnership has created posts that look much more profoundly at what is going on in the city, at the effects of expansion and at the kind of processes which occur with expansion, to give us some kind of prophetic voice.
It is this understanding and insight, that has made the church a respected partner with the planning and development authorities. Milton Keynes was the first of the new towns in the ‘60s which involved the church in development of the master plans.
A look at the website of the Milton Keynes Local Strategic Partnership states: ‘Our vision is to create a city that has soul, energy and dynamism.’
The Mission Partnership looks at how it might influence the decision making process to ensure that the communities that come into existence have hearts and souls.
Tim Clapton says: ‘We must engage with civic life as Christians in order to see signs of the Kingdom in our community. The church has been a voice of integrity in the development of Milton Keynes over the last 30 years and we must make sure that the next phase of development also has integrity. ‘I see my job as carrying on that work.’
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