This autumn, a group of around 100 adults and children came together to launch a new church on an estate in Tolworth, south west London.
Hope Church Tolworth is an initiative between members of Cornerstone Church, Kingston (who are a part of church-planting network Co-Mission) and others who have come from Emmanuel Church, Tolworth (who are Anglican). They met for the first time on Sunday 24 November in a local Primary School building, following months of gathering for prayer, picnics and meals. The pastor is Bart Erlebach, who was formerly the minister of Emmanuel, Tolworth.
Robin Walpole, a member of the plant, commented, ‘[Bart] could not in all conscience stay in the Church of England due to the majority of English bishops actively pulling the Church away from its Reformation foundations based on the authority of the Bible.’
He continued: ‘How exciting it is that members from two different evangelical traditions are praying and working together to serve the Lord as one body.
‘People have been praying for opportunities to plant on the Sunray estate for at least the last 40 years and we are meeting in a local Primary School in that area, a much-neglected part of Tolworth as far as the gospel is concerned, with no permanent church witness in its 90-year existence, as far as we know.’
The plant is affiliated with both Co-Mission and the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).
