In recent months I have visited and worshipped in a number of HTB and charismatic evangelical church plants and takeovers in the Stepney area of East London and have found their teaching and worship practices to be unhealthy, manipulative, abusive and sometimes incompetent.
In my last blog I wrote about my experience worshipping at St Michael’s Basingstoke, the town centre parish church where I was an active member fifty years ago, soon after the Basingstoke Team Ministry had been formed. I knew there had been a relatively recent proposal to make St Michael’s a hub church but it hasn’t become a hub church. Instead it has been “taken over” as an HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) church plant by a church in Reading. How did this happen, I wondered? My question prompted more research and a considerable amount of detective work. I was guided to a detailed 26 page report on the Diocese of Winchester website: Going fast or going far? SDF Phase 1 end-of-programme external review For The Diocese of Winchester. The report doesn’t answer the question, how did Reading get involved?, but it does provide a lot of information of interest to my research into the financial resources and mechanisms behind the transformation of Church of England parishes into HTB clones with patterns of worship and teaching that are, I believe, abusive, manipulative and damaging to people’s spiritual and emotional health and well-being.
The Report begins with an Executive summary:
“In 2018, the Diocese of Winchester launched Phase 1 of what was initially called the Winchester: Mission Action programme. With the help of £4.32 million from the Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the diocese invested in the following projects to respond to key mission opportunities. The second of four mission opportunities was: “Invest for Growth which included Resource Churches, church plants and pioneer hubs.”
It's worth noting that the mission initiatives cited in the report are not solely HTB inspired but flow from the Church of England’s 'Mission Shaped Church' report and the Reform and Renewal programme.
The proposal to make Basingstoke Parish Church a hub church, together with churches in Andover and Southampton, derives from the Winchester Diocesan mission action programme. In December 2017, the diocese had been awarded £4.23 million from the Church of England’s Strategic Development Fund to match fund four mission projects over three years costing an overall £8.5 million. The diocese had argued that a mission action programme was needed to achieve a ‘step-change’ across the diocese from maintenance ‘towards transformational and sustainable growth.’
The SDF Phase 1 report doesn’t say where the remaining £4.27 million came from. My assumption is that it was provided by the HTB-related Church Revitalisation Trust. The language used throughout the report is more characteristic of the financial and business world of the City of London than of a visionary Christian project. There is no mention of God or Jesus, theology, spirituality, Christian life or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It focuses on the evaluation of the success (or failure) of strategies adopted by HTB and the Church Revitalisation Trust, strategies being ultimately rolled out, it would seem, across the whole Church of England.
St Michael’s – why an HTB plant and not a hub?
So how is it that St Michael’s Basingstoke was been taken over by an HTB church in Reading and did not become a hub church as might have been expected of a well-supported, significant town centre church and was clearly intended initially? The report says the key achievements of the Winchester Mission Action Programme include:
“In Southampton and Andover, revitalising two civic churches as Resource Churches led to transformative growth, refurbished buildings and further phase plants and revitalisations.”
This must have been the intention for Basingstoke.
Charity Commission Reports
The Reports of the Trustees and Financial Statements for Basingstoke Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31 December 2021 contains the following information:
“PCC meetings throughout the year were dominated by the Winchester Diocesan plans to develop a Resource Parish for Basingstoke. Originally a project based on the town centre church of St Michael's, it became a Team-wide Resource Parish, encompassing all four churches and developing a strategy for both the town and the estates.
“The first meeting of the year was attended by Bishop David and Mark Lowman, Diocesan Head of Strategic Development. It was noted that stage 1 of the application to the Strategic Development Fund had been successful, and a steering group had been set up to continue the process to stage 2, the purpose of which was to present the plans and give confidence to the funding body that they could be delivered. Bishop David attended several further meetings during the course of the year.
“Subsequent meetings discussed the Memorandum of Understanding drawn up as a guiding governance document for the project, as well as the Project Management Plan and Mission Strategy. Each church was encouraged to draw up a Statement of Needs and its own missional intention, noting that some elements would be common to all four churches while others would be specific to the different contexts.
“The discernment process for the Bishop's candidate for the Resource Parish Team Leader was discussed at the October meeting and finalised later in the year following the announcement of the Team Rector's resignation from her post. The draft Parish Profile was discussed at the December meeting. Intended for the information of candidates, this described the Parish, its churches and its hopes for the future, as well as the qualities sought from a prospective Lead Minister.”
The Diocese of Winchester’s report identifies that the project was ‘favourable’ because of project funding from HTB and the Church Revitalisation Trust (p. 4 & 8). I understand that the HTB/Church Revitalisation Trust have their own criteria for choosing churches to ‘revitalise’ relating to how apt the local demography is to their methods of mission. They are typically younger, mobile, wealthy, educated and unchurched.
What happened to Phase 3?
A note about Basingstoke in the section of the October 2024 Evaluation Report on targets and actuals says:
“As documented in the November 2018 Change Request document, plans for the Resource Church in Basingstoke outlined in the original bid proved impossible to deliver in Phase 1 due to a lack of consensus in the deanery and clergy chapter and uncertainty around Resource Church location. The delayed Basingstoke Resource Church became part of Phase 3.”
It’s not clear when Phase 3 was scheduled for or in what way, if any, delivery of the Winchester Mission Action Programme relating to Basingstoke was delivered.
“The programme coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic - a factor in slowing progress across all projects - and a painful and confusing time of adverse change for the diocese culminating in the resignation of +Tim Dakin as Bishop of Winchester in 2021. Phase 1 was heavily affected by his leadership style. He preferred what he called a ‘whole systems’ approach to change. Change included cutting all parish support roles, establishing a new School of Mission and cutting 22 incumbencies during COVID-19. While this sort of approach may work in some contexts for creating energy around the chaos of the new and different, so many different changes of direction were experienced by most in the diocese as disruptive and destructive.”
Anglican Ink provides helpful information
My journalist friends of old from the other side of the Pond, Kelvin Kallsen and George Conger, published a valuable report, Diocese of Winchester receives £1.59 million in funding to support church growth on 21 July 2022.
“The Diocese of Winchester has been awarded £1.59m to grow the church community in Basingstoke. The new funding from the Church of England’s Strategic Development Fund (SDF) will go towards the launch of a resource church in Basingstoke, as part of the Diocese’s work to reach the ‘missing generations’ in the town, particularly those who are new or returning to church.
“The project will see investment in all four churches in the Parish of Basingstoke. The funding will enable the parish to bring in a team focusing particularly on children, young people and families in both the town centre and on the two urban estates of Brighton Hill and South Ham. There will also be investment in buildings and infrastructure to resource the mission to the town.
“The extra funding will enable significant engagement with people locally through social transformation projects in areas of principal need. It will also support Christian witness and service through working with local schools and Further Education colleges. There will be increasing capacity for training and developing young leaders.
“The project will be led by Revd John Hudson who has been appointed as Rector of Basingstoke. John said:
“There are thousands of people in Basingstoke who don’t know Jesus as Lord and saviour and my heart is to focus on finding new and innovative ways to share the Good News with people from all age groups and backgrounds.
“I am so excited to be working with the people of the Basingstoke Parish, the new team as they begin to arrive, and with others from across the town and the diocese as the church here steps into this next phase of its ministry in the town.
“It is also such a blessing to have the support of the Bishop of Basingstoke, the Diocese of Winchester, and our partners from the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) network as we work towards continued revitalisation of the church and play our part in the transformation of society here in Basingstoke.”
“Basingstoke will be the latest resource Church that the Diocese of Winchester has established with funding from SDF grants and by working with HTB and its Church Revitalisation Trust. These include St Swithun’s Bournemouth, St Mary’s Southampton, St Winfrid’s Totton and St Mary’s Andover, all of which have seen significant growth and made a huge impact on their communities over recent years.
“The Bishop of Basingstoke, the Right Reverend David Williams said:
“It is a blessing to receive this funding and I am filled with hope for the change this promises to bring to the area. I am looking forward to seeing the great work John and his team have planned for local communities, ensuring that they can thrive in God’s love.”
“John will begin as Rector of Basingstoke at a service on 5 September 2022, with the aim to launch as a resource church in September 2022.”
John Hudson, appointed as Rector of Basingstoke, worked as a radio producer for BBC Berkshire from March 2010 to October 2015 and from then until July 2019 as a senior journalist with BBC Berkshire leading the digital and BBC News Online team. As a prospective ordinand John studied theology, ministry and mission at St Mellitus College, London and worked on placement at Greyfriars Church, Reading for two years. He served his curacy of 15 months full-time at Holy Trinity Brompton. In September 2022 he became Rector and Senior Leader of Basingstoke Church (as St Michael’s has now been renamed).
Are HTB church plants LGBTQIA+ friendly?
My original purpose in investigating churches in the Stepney area of London was to find out how inclusive and welcoming of LGBTQIA+ people they are. The answer seems to be that they are open to LGBTQIA+ people but the leadership is sworn to secrecy about their teaching – which is homophobic. Basingstoke was an inclusive oasis in the 1970s when I lived and worshipped there. Every congregation and every clergy person in the team (including the gay curate) were positive. My friends in Basingstoke tell me that All Saints' was removed from the Inclusive Church directory once the HTB takeover happened. After debate, the PCC managed to agree a watered-down, disingenuous Inclusivity statement that is buried at the foot of the website. . Despite the demand that all four churches should delete their commitment to Inclusive Church there are still a number of out LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples attending the churches, some in focal roles.
Homophobia, opposition to radical new Christian inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people and the failure of Living in Love and Faith
The Winchester report and the discoveries I am making about the dominant control the HTB / Church Revitalisation Trust axis has over the Church of England adds to my understanding of why the LLF project to which the present Archbishop of York and Archbishop Justin Welby committed themselves with the phrase “radical new Christian inclusion” has been doomed to failure in General Synod. The conservative evangelical axis represented by the Alliance Campaign are seeking
Alternative episcopal oversight
To reroute their diocesan financial contributions, and
To encourage ordinands to participate in an orthodox vocations programme
in opposition to the broad progressive campaign that now argues, urgently, for equal marriage in church, the blessing of same-sex relationships in church and equality for married same-sex clergy. The Alliance Campaign is affecting every church plant and every church is being infected by HTB culture. None of the clergy and staff that I have talked with in these churches have been willing to tell me what their stance on LGBTQIA+ equality is. They won’t talk about it publicly because they know it’s unpopular with Gen-Zedders, their core target group.
I repeat here what I wrote at the beginning of this blog. In recent months I have visited and worshipped in a number of HTB and charismatic evangelical church plants and takeovers in the Stepney area of East London and have found their teaching and worship practices to be unhealthy, manipulative, abusive and sometimes incompetent.
Addendum
From the Winchester SDF Phase 1 end-of-programme external review
What follows provides further details from the SDF Phase 1 end-of-programme external review For The Diocese of Winchester, details relevant to my primary concern about the effects of the 'Mission Shaped Church' report and the Reform and Renewal programme and the unhealthy influence of HTB and the Church Revitalisation Trust.
Learning includes:
The Resource Churches appear to have a somewhat detached relationship with the diocese.
Invest for Growth Mission Theory
Having a Mission Theory is integral to each element of the Invest for Growth model being used: Church Plants, Pioneer Hubs, Major Development Areas, Student Evangelism. The Report addresses each element, thus:
Church plants – Mission theory: No detailed theory of mission.
Pioneer hubs - Mission theory: Limited mission theory in the bid.
Major Development Areas (MDAs) Funding period: 2018-2020 Mission theory: As with church plants, no detailed theory of mission. Manydown Basingstoke and South Basingstoke, Building of housing development severely delayed. Removed from Phase 1 in 2021 re-baselining.
Student Evangelism Funding period: 2018-2022 Mission theory: No mission theory. The Report asks how and why Student Evangelism outcomes were or were not achieved. With no clear mission theory yet ambitious targets around evangelism, the researchers were told “The bishop had a model no one could understand. In practice the Strategic Development Office/team did not take shape to the full extent it was outlined in the bid.”
Random Comments Shed Some Light
Throughout the Report comments shed light on reasons that might account for the failure of the St Michael’s Basingstoke hub project.
The Programme Board ended up acting as more of a delivery group than an executive board. It proved difficult to agree which members of senior staff should remain at a strategic level and which were involved in day-to-day operations. What the Project Champion role entailed was not altogether clear.
It took more time than anticipated to integrate the programme into existing diocesan systems and processes.
Where pastoral reorganisations and other proposed changes in the original bid were resisted by local parishes, ecclesiastical structures were robust in defending the existing. Considerable time, energy and ‘trust capital’ were expended in the diocese fighting for the new.
The enabling roles envisaged in the bid proved more difficult to recruit to - or hold on to (the Rural Mission Enabler, Community Development Enabler and Student Mission Enabler)How key has clergy or lay leadership been to the success of these projects? These projects demonstrate that both kinds of leadership are vital. There is a paradox at the heart of the continuing projects that the kind of clergy leadership required is the kind who know how to nurture teams and release into - or affirm existing lay leaders in - positions of responsibility.
Further lessons learned:
As has no doubt been captured in the evaluations of other early SDF programmes, a greater emphasis on change management was needed early on to complement programme management approaches. People-related change requires skills, especially where the status quo is being so heavily contested.
Inserting this programme ‘on top of’ existing church structures led to something of a ‘split personality’ for the diocese. Where pastoral reorganisations were planned, ecclesiastical structures were robust in defending the existing. It would have been far better to wait for key clergy or laity to move/retire rather than fight parish structures that, as one interviewee commented, will ‘haunt the diocese for years to come’.
Resource Churches have created capacity and momentum, modelling that Resource Church revitalisations can work in less affluent contexts. However, there are hidden pressures on Resource Church leaders to consistently deliver multiple objectives to multiple stakeholders.
Even the St Marys Resource Churches seem to have something of a detached relationship with the diocese where support from - or trust of - the diocese seems to be low.
I’m grateful to friends who have helped research information for this blog.