In Depth:  Milla Ling-Davies

Milla Ling-Davies

Department store chain Debenhams is under fire for selling offensive ‘gay in a manger’ Christmas jumpers online.

Multiple complaints were sent into Debenhams after shoppers discovered a purple jumper and a matching mug emblazoned with the slogan ‘gay in a manger’. While initially it was claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that their customer service teams may have been deleting these emails without reading them, the department store has now removed the product from their website – though has issued no apology.

Milla Ling-Davies

As the Parliamentary debate for assisted dying approaches, fears are growing that the hospice funding crisis could make patients more likely to opt to die.

Parliament is gearing up to debate proposals to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life later this year. At the same time, hospices, who receive only a third of their funding through the NHS, have been calling for more government support as they face job cuts, bed cuts and even closure.

Milla Ling-Davies

In a display of unity, three churches in Worcestershire have overcome stylistic and theological differences to form a new church plant, recognised by the FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches).

Set to officially launch in January 2025, the formation of the new Grace Church Kidderminster occurred after two churches in the Wyre Forest each approached the lead pastor of nearby Woodgreen Church, Richard Lacey, for help. With small and aging congregations, both Kidderminster Evangelical Church (KEC) and Christ Church Wyre Forest, (CCWF) had recognised a need for external assistance – they contacted Lacey within weeks of each other.

Milla Ling-Davies

The Lord knows what He is doing – even though we don’t, the Director of Word Alive says, after the announcement of the annual event’s permanent closure.

After running for 15 years, the popular Bible holiday conference will now be permanently shutting.

Milla Ling-Davies

The idea of a UK ‘Gospel Coalition’ is continuing to receive varying degrees of support.

At the start of April, evangelical umbrella group Affinity announced it was entering discussions to form such a new body – and that it might even ‘replace’ their own organisation (see May issue of en).

Milla Ling-Davies

In a powerful display of unity, the four main evangelical groups within the Church of Ireland (COI) came together in April for a day of worship, teaching and prayer.

Ministry collective First Things hosted the gathering, inviting evangelicals from New Wine, Church of Ireland Evangelical Fellowship, Southern Anglican Fellowship of Evangelicals and Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy to St Johns Parish Centre in Moira, Craigavon on 27 April. They were thrilled to see over 350 people from across the groups come along.

Milla Ling-Davies

In a ‘bonkers’ step of faith, last September Llanelli Evangelical Church in West Wales decided to buy a local police station. With the purchase now complete, they’re excited to plan ‘how best to use it for the Lord’s glory’.

As they’ve grown in size over the last few years, Llanelli Evangelical Church have been searching for the right home, and one that would allow them to better connect with the local community – they’ve met in a local school and, more recently, an old synagogue. ‘We were looking for a larger building for a long time,’ said pastor Phil Swan, ‘I happened to Google commercial properties in the area and saw that what had been the divisional police station was up for sale.’ Just two weeks later, the church had put an offer in and by October, they heard that it had been accepted.

Milla Ling-Davies

Evangelical charity Tearfund is being urged to reconsider a decision to axe its final paid employee in Wales and oversee ministry there from London – prompting a former director to accuse it of treating the country like ‘a colony’.

This year, for the first time since 1987, the organisation won’t have a staff member promoting their mission in the nation. It is the fourth and final role to be cut from Tearfund Wales in the last three years.

Milla Ling-Davies

With efforts to find a new venue proving difficult, the hard decision has been made to cancel popular Bible conference Word Alive in 2025.

Since the shock closure of their venue, Pontyns Holiday Park, in November 2023, Word Alive Trustees and Director Nigel Beynon have been searching for an alternative site to host the conference. Being unable to find a ‘like for like’ replacement, however, has prevented them from planning for next year and ultimately led to the decision to cancel Word Alive for the second year running.

Milla Ling-Davies

Is there space for another evangelical umbrella organisation? Or would it just duplicate what others already do?

Evangelical network Affinity has announced that it will be ‘championing the formation of The Gospel Coalition UK’. The news has been met with a mixture of support and concern from UK evangelicals.

Milla Ling-Davies

Christian Unions (CUs) have seen an increase in the number of students professing faith during their mission weeks.

In February, as they do each Spring, nearly 100 CUs across the UK held mission weeks on university campuses – a series of themed evangelistic events spread out over five days. While CUs have often seen students profess faith in the days and months following mission weeks, this year they saw many make a commitment during the weeks themselves.

Milla Ling-Davies

The Bible Society has finished producing the Bible in a dyslexia-friendly format.

Beginning in 2015 with the publication of the book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark, the resources were designed to enable those with the learning disorder to engage with Scripture ‘comfortably and confidently’. Now, following the publication of Deuteronomy and Joshua, all 66 books have been finished, and the project is complete.

Milla Ling-Davies

Despite having the idea rejected for a third time at February’s General Synod, evangelicals within the Church of England (Cof E) are continuing to fight for a form of structural differentiation.

In the wake of the Synod, Bishop Martyn Snow is now undertaking ‘shuttle diplomacy’ to develop concrete proposals that will progress implementation of Living in Love and Faith (LLF) at the next Synod. In a first step towards this, on 8 March he formed three working groups – one to draft proposed pastoral guidance, one to draft proposals for ‘pastoral reassurance’, and one to do more work on the Prayers of Love and Faith. A number of evangelicals have already joined these groups. And the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has said it will welcome every opportunity to converse with Bishop Martyn during this period – and will still be pushing for a structural change.

Milla Ling-Davies

After 30 years of working in mission both in the UK and across the globe, Mark Ellis became Ministry Director for Keswick Ministries in September 2023.

Six months into the role, he talks to en about how things are going, what’s new at the convention this year, and the future of Keswick Ministries.

Milla Ling-Davies

On Saturday 6 January 2024, Dan James had an encouraging answer to the prayer he’d been praying for 11 years: a church was planted on his council estate in South Leicester.

In 2013, primary school teacher Dan and his wife Jamie moved into Eyres Monsell council estate and their hearts were gripped by both its physical and spiritual needs – there was no gospel church there. ‘Convinced that God’s primary mission strategy is a healthy local church, we started praying for one to begin,’ Dan shared with en. Just over a decade on from those first prayers, after plans, bold initiatives and setbacks, 100 people gathered on the estate this January to commission Eyres Monsell Community Church and Dan as its pastor.

Milla Ling-Davies

At the end of 2023, three friends launched an online appeal to raise money for ‘Ezra and Nehemiah’, one of only a handful of Christian strategy board games to exist. Their target was £11,000 – but they raised nearly £259,000.

‘Ezra and Nehemiah’ is the latest in a series of board games created by Shem Phillips at Garphill Games. When the Kickstarter appeal first launched in October, he expected around 2,000 people to give to the game – but 4,000 pledged their support. ‘It was a great result,’ Phillips commented to en. ‘It means we can print more copies, which brings the unit cost down slightly. But we are mostly excited that more people will get to enjoy the game.’

Milla Ling-Davies

More than 100 delegates have gathered at the London City Mission headquarters to celebrate ten years of the Evangelical Alliance’s ‘One People Commission’ (OPC).

Anchored by Titilola Babarinde, the co-ordinator of the OPC, the celebration began with a time of collective worship.

Milla Ling-Davies

A former gambler turned evangelist is planning his next mission at the age of 79.

As a young man, Fane Conant bet on horses every day and spent his Saturdays in the casino. After meeting some Christian sportsmen in his twenties and seeing they ‘had something’ he didn’t, he gave his life to Christ – but it took a decade for him to finally stop gambling.

Milla Ling-Davies

Ferniehill Evangelical Church in Edinburgh finished the year praising God for two big encouragements in 2023 – they moved back into their renovated building and employed their first pastor, Alistair Chalmers.

For over 50 years, Ferniehill Evangelical Church has been faithfully witnessing to the local community in Gilmerton, Edinburgh.

Milla Ling-Davies

As many as one in three pregnancies in the UK may now be ending in abortion, projections from an independent public health consultant state – prompting alarm from Christians.

A new report from Kevin Duffy of Percuity says that while one in four pregnancies ended in abortion in 2019, the figures are predicted to have shot up to one in three for 2023. Overall, the number of abortions in England and Wales this year could be as high as 325,000.

Milla Ling-Davies

A new report from the Bible Society has revealed that the fastest-growing church in the UK is the Chinese Church.

In just the last two years, there has been 29% growth in the Chinese Church in the UK – a large jump from the 7% growth they’d seen in the previous ten years. This is largely due to people emigrating from Hong Kong to Britain.

Milla Ling-Davies

A new initiative called Cant i Gymru has the ambitious aim of seeing 100 healthy churches planted in Wales within the next decade.

Cant i Gymru (meaning ‘100 for Wales’ in English) is ‘a collective of gospel friends’ from across the world and Wales. According to their website, they are ‘believing God for a fresh wave of missional planting in Cymru’, and aim to do this by providing pastoral support, uniting in prayer, and equipping and sending out church planters.

Milla Ling-Davies

A Christian-led charity faces eviction after clashing with the Church in Wales (CiW) over the use of their building.

In 2020, The Parish Trust charity started using the St Thomas Church building in Caerphilly as a base, for free rental, with the full knowledge and blessing of the CiW and local bishop. The Trust claims that for the next three years they were led to believe the CiW would sell the building to them. However, in May 2023 lawyers for the CiW requested they either accept a tenancy agreement or vacate the premises.

Milla Ling-Davies

A new, affordable, independent Christian School called St Anselm’s announced their presence with a launch event on 14 October in Highfields Church, Cardiff.

Preparing to open its Primary phase in three years’ time in 2026, the evening was a chance for parents and anyone interested to hear from founding Headmaster Jamie Burns, and listen to a panel discussion with a range of educational experts.

Milla Ling-Davies

After spending 37 years in ministry, John Samuel, Senior Minister of Duke Street Church, Richmond Upon Thames retired this July.

John entered pastoral ministry having first trained and worked as a solicitor in his 20s. After undertaking a theology degree, he served as a pastor in Dublin of Grosvenor Road Baptist Church for 19 years, and in London with Duke Street Church for 11 years.

Milla Ling-Davies

Seven students graduated from London Seminary this June. Having finished lectures just the day before, they ended the year by attending the college’s Annual Thanksgiving service on Saturday 24 June.

At the event, speaker Rev. Dr. Jonny Gibson, Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, delivered a message from 1 Timothy 4. He emphasised particularly the need for consistency of lifestyle and doctrine in Christian ministry.

Milla Ling-Davies

Donna Jennings has stepped down as the Church and Mission Co-ordinator for the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland. She is leaving to pursue a PHD with the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. 

In her role, Donna sought to equip the church in Northern Ireland to be strategic, creative and bold as they proclaimed the gospel. She served faithfully for four years as the world experienced the challenges of the pandemic, several global humanitarian refugee crises, and the cost-of-living crisis. She wrote several mission resources for the church during this time, including Walk, Pray, Talk a resource to encourage small groups and prayer walks. One church leader who used this said that it had catalysed their church into missional concern for the local area.

Milla Ling-Davies

Hundreds have gathered from Church of England churches across the London Diocese to pray in light of recent proposals for prayers of blessing for those in same-sex relationships.

The event was held in All Souls Langham Place and run by LonDEN (Diocese of London Evangelical Network), which represents Church of England evangelical churches from across the city.

Milla Ling-Davies

If you were asked how a Christian Union runs an evangelistic event, you might guess it would look something like this: a short talk, time for a Q&A, and perhaps some food.

You’d be right. CUs have long operated within this structure and seen encouraging fruit come from it. This year, however, the CUs in Leeds pioneered a different approach.

Milla Ling-Davies

CU mission weeks are back.

Until recently, the idea of hundreds of students sitting chair to chair in a marquee, baguettes in hand and listening to a gospel talk, has seemed laughably out of reach. In the past few weeks however, 77 Christian Unions across Great Britain were finally able to run mission weeks in-person again. After a two-year break, they were uncertain how these weeks of focused evangelistic events might be received.

Milla Ling-Davies

Having never set foot on campus, having met only a few members in their CU and feeling uncertain about what university life will be like this term, many Christian Union leaders were especially eager to come to Forum 2021.

Forum is UCCF’s annual training conference for CU leaders, aiming to inspire and equip them to share the gospel in the universities, before they head back to campus in September. This August, over 1,000 students from across Great Britain arrived at the Quinta Christian Centre in Shropshire. They met friends face-to-face, sang praise to God, attended seminars and put their heads together to plan for the year in front of them.