Welcome!

Thanks for visiting.

This site is very much under construction! Please get in touch if you cannot find what you are looking for.

I’ve always been involved in a wide range of issues and concerns so I hope that you find something here which is of service to you. The last fifteen years I have been the Area Bishop of Bradwell which means that I serve an extremely varied region of South Essex within the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford. I am also Chair of the Church of England’s Urban Strategy Consultative Group and of the ecumenical National Estate Churches Network.

Some of my interests are listed to the left, so just click away. If in doubt, contact me by clicking on my photograph and I will do my best to be of service. If you wish to purchase any of my own publications or those related to housing estate ministry we will be happy to post them to you.

More recently I have enjoyed offering “An Audience with the Bishop” – an entertainment with guitar and stories (and a Q & A break) – but the diary is busy so please book well ahead. Download poster and guidelines for holding an event on the Whats New page. 

Building Utopia?

Seeking the authentic Church for New Communities

Edited by  Laurie Green and Chris Baker, Research Director of the William Temple Foundation and part-time lecturer, University of Manchester. The contributors include Michael Fox, John Perumbalath, Sue Hutson and Bishop Brian Castle.

The new urban areas are reshaping much of Britain. Those who live, work or minister within them are not only at the cutting edge of new forms of built environment, they must also discover new ways of being community and contemplate new expressions of Church. All this demands careful and bold analysis and creative theological reflection. While powerful global economic forces are changing our landscapes, human beings have to wrestle with themes of belonging and identity. The gospel engages with these human narratives, driving and shaping a Christian search for alternative perspectives and practices. What are the appropriate building projects, mission programmes and lifestyles that will be effective in meeting the challenges of these urban settlements? How should other areas respond?

The writers of this book have worked together as a group, mapping the new situation, analysing their findings and drawing out those themes which demand attention, making it possible to reflect theologically about the challenges of our newly built urban developments.

Review by The Right Reverend John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford:

This book was written before the banking crisis and the subsequent start of what may prove to be a deep recession. That has made it all the more pertinent because it is raising critical questions about the developments going on all around us. The collapse in house building might just give us some space to have these questions addressed in the public forum.

Essex and East London are on the front line of plans for huge development. Bishop Laurie, supported by Michael Fox and others have used their huge experience of ministry and theological thinking in the midst of all of this to challenge what is going on. Not that they have any fixed blue-prints. They do have real concerns rooted in their Christian faith and experience of ministry on the borders of emerging communities.

Readers in this diocese will know of the voices and contexts spoken here. The Thames Gateway, North Harlow, Colchester and Chelmsford are all in the midst of the demand for substantial new housing. The church is struggling to know how to be present in such places and what to say about the shaping of new community life and the needs of the people. This book gives those people voice and then enables us the readers to think from our faith into their experience.

Governments talk easily of ‘sustainable communities’. Political and economic orthodoxy believes in the infallibility of the liberal market economy. Christians are drawn into accepting these norms. But do they work? For whom do they work?

What sort of future community life are we shaping? Will people flourish and grow in these contexts? Will they be good for human life and will they be able to speak of the mystery of God and of Divine Love?

The present crisis is cracking our confidence in the orthodoxies and even idolatries of the past decades. Our friends have given us a book to make us think again. Read it and join in the search for a genuinely Christian vision to shape communities of tomorrow. 

The Estate We're In, Bible study notes from National Estate Churches Network 2007 National Conference.

Urban Seminar, Madurai, India, 2008

Sermon given at the Chrism Mass, Chelmsford Cathedral, Maundy Thursday, 20 March 2008

I hope you enjoy this site – and please let me have recommendations for its improvement.

God Bless!

+Laurie Bradwell