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History In 1988 Donald English had the vision that national evangelism officers should meet round the table. 'The rest is history', as they say. The Group for Evangelisation was brought together by Revd Dr Donald English in 1988 when he was General Secretary of the Home Mission Division of the Methodist Church.
Dr English invited Rev Roger Whitehead to co-ordinate the work for the Group. Roger served as the only previous Executive Secretary, whilst also being a part time local URC Minister in Harrold, Bedfordshire, until he retired from GfE in 2005. Roger writes, 'Originally the Group started off as a three times a year meeting of Donald English and his equivalents in the other major denominations, but when Churches Together in England was formed in 1990, the Group expanded to include smaller denominations and evangelistic agencies. Initially, the Group's main function was to share information, but when the Decade of Evangelism started the Group began to plan together and then to work together. Today, the churches are in the position that no one major denomination would undertake new work without prior consultation with the others, and usually with active involvement of them too. During the Decade of Evangelism the Group initiated or Co-ordinated major initiatives including:
On accasion it seemed right for the Group to do work on behalf of the churches, but usually the work was to co-ordinate what the churches were wanting to do together'. Before Jim Currin was appointed by the Group, Roger Whitehead had overseen and co-ordinated the major project 'Evangelising Contemporary Spiritualities' which gave rise to the major tour and book 'Equiping your Church in a Spiritual Age'. Building on the work of the campanion book 'Beyond the Fringe' by Rev Yvonne Richmond on her research in Coventry, and accompanied by the reflective book 'Evangelism in a Spiritual age' , this fed in to the GfE sister website 'Church in a Spiritual Age' . The set of three books are available from: The Evangelism Department, Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR for the combined price of £25 with a cheque made payable to 'Group for Evangelisation'.
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