Exploring Fresh Expressions with Vaxjo

GUESTS from our Swedish partner diocese of Vaxjo have been exploring ‘Fresh Expressions’ of church in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Magnus Lind, Mattias Ostborg and Hakan Sunnliden are members of the clergy team in the Varnamo pastorate, serving a town of 35,000 in the western part of the diocese.

After visiting the Revd Clive Collier (one of the pioneers of ‘cell church’ in the Church of England) in Hazlemere, the group saw how the Marlow team ministry is applying the insights of Fresh Expressions in a more traditional Anglican parish, and met the Revd Ian Adams who leads the mayBe community in Oxford.

Then it was off to Christ Church Cathedral to talk with Rt Revd Colin Fletcher, Bishop of Dorchester, who has oversight of the Fresh Expressions agenda across the diocese, and with the the Ven. Julian Hubbard, Archdeacon of Oxford, who chairs the diocesan unity group, before enjoying choral evensong.