In 2004, the report Mission-Shaped Church was published. It encouraged the Church of England to support church planting and fresh expressions of church, to reach a community in the UK that had undergone dramatic change in the previous 30 years.
By 2013, the Diocese of London reflected this activity in its Capital Vision 2020. It made the planting and revitalising of 100 new worshipping communities a diocesan priority.
The Centre for Church Planting and Growth
In September 2015, Ric Thorpe was appointed as the Bishop of Islington to lead the Diocese of London’s goal of creating 100 new worshipping communities and to offer support for church planting. The Centre for Church Planting and Growth was established to oversee this work, with the Bishop of London giving permission to serve any diocese in the Church of England when invited by the local diocesan bishop.
The Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication
Due in part to the success of the Diocese of London’s Capital Vision 2020, the scope of the Centre’s work grew rapidly. To reflect this, it was renamed as The Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication, or CCX, supporting diocesan leadership teams and church leaders throughout England and beyond as they look to plant and grow churches and develop their strategies for church planting.
In 2018 the House of Bishops issued a statement which outlined warm support for ‘planting new churches as a way of sharing in the apostolic mission by bringing more people in England to faith in Christ and participation in the life of the Church’. In 2019, General Synod passed a motion encouraging every parish and diocese to be part of this movement, forming new disciples and new congregations to reach the unreached in their community and the creation of ten thousand new Christian communities. Alongside this, CCX launched Myriad – which inspires and serves everyday people to form new church communities.
Find out more About CCX