'Imagine new Christian communities, grow existing churches'
Baptists via Everyone Everywhere have teamed up with the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication and other ecumenical partners to offer a series of events in 2026 to help churches reach new people with the Good News of Jesus Christ
In September 2015 Ric Thorpe was appointed as the Bishop of Islington in the Church of England, leading the Diocese of London's goal to plant 100 new worshipping communities across the capital. Bishop Ric founded the Centre for Church Planting and Growth to oversee this work, acting under the permission of the Bishop of London to serve any diocese in the Church of England.
Given the success of its work, the centre grew, becoming the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication (CCX), helping the Church of England's efforts to start new worshipping congregations and grow existing churches, multiplying in health and numbers.
To help gather and equip church planters and those with an interest in this activity, CCX began an annual church planting conference, Multiply. Over its nine years of events, Multiply has grown to serve and encourage many leaders beyond the Church of England, meeting across the UK to bring together local churches, hear stories of regional activity, and share what God is doing to multiply His Church in this nation.
A consistent theme to its gatherings is to ask the Church, “Who is it we’re not reaching with the love of Christ, and what would it take to reach them?”
In 2026, to reflect its work to support a growing body of leaders across every context, tradition and model, CCX formed a new ecumenical partnership for its Multiply events. This year, three gatherings will be shaped by stakeholders from Everyone Everywhere within the Baptist church, Faith in the North, which encourages and supports discipleship and prayer across the northern province of the Church of England, and St Hild theological college in Yorkshire, which offers training to both Baptist and Church of England traditions. Each of these organisations is united by a vision to see healthy churches planted and multiplied across the north of England.
The first event hosted by this new partnership will be Multiply: North, gathering at St George's Church, Leeds, on Tuesday 23 June. With a focus on 'planting together', Multiply: North is for every church that longs to reach new people, in new and renewed ways, with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Contributors will include Fiona Kirby-Smith, a Baptist minister and planter of Connect Church Crosby in Scunthorpe, an estate church she planted in 2020 alongside her husband.
Alex Harris, Director of the St Hild Centre for Church Planting, and Yorkshire Baptist Association Regional Minister for Pioneering & Church Planting, has acted as a key lead for Everyone Everywhere's role in this partnership.
He says, 'As I watch the growing interest in — and need for — starting new churches and fresh expressions of church within our local Baptist communities, I’m delighted by this new partnership with Multiply. We need to work together to recapture the spirit of the great collaboration envisioned in John 17.
'These events, taking place across the country, are ideal. They inspire, connect, and — most importantly — equip ordinary churches to imagine and begin new Christian communities in exactly the places and in the ways they are most needed.
'This is exactly what Everyone Everywhere is about as we seek to help everywhere and everyone have easy access to the gospel.'
On Saturday 17 October, Multiply Pioneer Mission will gathering those who feel called to pioneer new worshipping communities in creative ways, hosted at St Barnabas Church, Kensington. Shaped by voices from the Baptist and Anglican church, its programme will look to celebrate stories of hope, explore theology that sustains, and share practical wisdom for mission at the edges.
Then on Tuesday 10 November, Multiply: Midlands will call together leaders and church teams to share wisdom across traditions and contexts, exploring how to grow a truly mixed ecology of Church across the Midlands. Hosted at Gas Street Church, its programme will feature leaders from a range of denominations and expressions of church.
Baptist Times, 31/03/2026