Suffolk Centre Of Mission

Suffolk

Suffolk Centre of Mission is a Diocese-wide hub for Evangelism and Pioneering. It works in partnership with and in support of both parish churches and fresh expressions of church. The Centre of Mission offers training; seeks to invite others to join in mission and evangelism in a variety of ways and provides hands-on pioneering.

Gail Southgate and James Hawksworth are Church Army Evangelists working together in Suffolk Centre of Mission.

“The Suffolk Centre of Mission is not a physical building, instead it aims to be at the centre of people – bringing people together and encouraging people to understand and share their faith story. Through this, we will enable all groups to grow – whether a parish church community, PCC, Lightwave group, youth project, a Fresh Expression or even as an individual person.” – Gail Southgate

Gail co-leads the Lightwave group ‘Pilgrims Together’, which gathers both in person and online to welcome and worship with newcomers to the local community. She also plays an active role in developing local faith groups, fostering fellowship and meaningful discussions on faith. She is a key facilitator of Envoy Communities across the diocese—a pioneering evangelism programme that equips and supports parishioners in Suffolk. By encouraging discussion, action, prayer, and celebration, Envoy has already helped to grow thriving groups across the region.

James is pioneering a youth community which meets regularly and he is developing partnerships with local churches, schools and colleges. James’ work and passion is rooted in the development of missional youth church using the MYCN model. James is currently working in collaboration with local primary schools and local 6th form college building relationship and offering pastoral care. James is keen to share his experience and support others. He shares in hosting Centre of Mission Envoy Communities.

meet James

Young people already know about social action, probably a lot more than the church does because we focus a lot on what we believe, rather than necessarily what we do, whereas they would say social action is more important than anything else.

So, I think, how do we build a relationship with the Revolutionary God when they’re already Revolutionary?

I want our young people to experience that shift in perspective that only encountering God can give. We’ve started praying with one another and practicing some spiritual exercises, encouraging them to engage with the Other, with the spiritual, rather than just the knowledge of who He is.

None of the kids are from faith backgrounds except maybe one, and my daughter. At first many were quite anti-Christian, even in our youth group.

One girl, put this song on the karaoke machine that we have, and they were all singing along to these lyrics about ending up on your knees in a leash at church. I had to ask them if that’s how they see us, as Christian youth leaders, and they responded, ‘oh no, you’re different,’ but we could see there was a journey to take.

Last week, we discovered the same girl, who has become so much more supportive of what we’re doing, at the front of the church behind the altar, praying with another girl.

INSTEAD OF SNEAKING OFF TO DO SOMETHING THEY SHOULDN’T, OR BECAUSE THEY WERE BORED, THEY HAD FOUND A QUIET SPACE TO PRAY TOGETHER.

It was beautiful.

James Hawksworth, Suffolk Centre of Mission

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could provide days of fun filled activities to children in the holidays

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could provide a care pack of food and clothing to women involved in sex work

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could take one of our youth groups to a national youth event

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Evangelists & Leaders

Gail Southgate

James Hawksworth

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The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was founded in 1914 and includes the county of Suffolk, with the exceptions of an area of North East Suffolk around Lowestoft, and one parish in the county of Essex. Serving about 631,000 people living in a geographical area of more than 1,400 square miles, the communities of the diocese are served by 443 parishes within 106 benefices and 16 deaneries.

Read James’ Newsletter