History

For many years, the ‘Gravesend Council of Churches’ was the group that brought together many of the local churches for fellowship, unity, and shared efforts in the areas of evangelism and ministry.  This group was renamed in the 1990s as ‘Churches Together in Gravesend’ (aka CTG) as part of the wider ‘Churches Together’ rebranding covering the entirety of England.

 

During this time, the network structure was built around the key traditional denominations: Anglican, Baptist, Roman Catholic, United Reformed, Methodist and lastly, the Free Churches.  The executive committee comprises ministers and lay representatives from each group, reaching 12 persons.  For years, the annual ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity’ saw ministers or lay leaders ‘pulpit swap’ or bring greetings each year to help build links.  

 

In the 1990s, there were vital developments that included the creation of the Easter Passion Play and Walk of Witness, principally led by Gravesend Methodist Church, St George's, and Emmanuel Baptist, along with regular prayer breakfasts and other events.  With the dawn of the new millennium, annual nationwide initiatives such as Hope ’08 and Street Pastors were brought to Gravesend and flourished. 

 

Alongside CTG, a new group of local children and Youth leaders started building connections and developing events and initiatives, such as ‘Why? Christmas’ and ‘Why? Easter’ which linked local churches directly with their local schools to present the gospel!  At the same time, Gravesend was experiencing a significant shift in the community demographics, which coincided with the growth of many new churches which sprang from an African heritage.  

 

This required a significant adjustment in the constitution and operation of CTG, removing the formal leadership structures and adopting a model that embraced any churches that could happily agree with the Nicene Creed, regardless of their level of historical representation.  This newly reshaped group also adopted the broader term ‘Churches Together in Gravesham’ and deliberately expanded its vision and embrace to include churches in Northfleet and the wider area.

 

Since this change, CTG has increased in the number of member churches, significantly expanded our impact on the community to include Schools Pastors, Foodbank and the Sanctuary Homeless Shelter as projects held by a single group but shared through the CTG network.  We have embraced the public celebration of Christmas and Easter in partnership with the local council and gifted the council with the ‘Christian Flag’ to fly on certain feast days!

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Yet the heart of CTG remains the same: we seek fellowship, unity and shared efforts in evangelism and ministry in this ever-changing world!