{"id":11892,"date":"2025-12-10T05:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=11892"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:17:13","slug":"coe-pioneers-new-church-in-bournemouth-housing-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=11892","title":{"rendered":"CoE pioneers new church in Bournemouth housing estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \u00a0(Photo: Diocese of Winchester)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Diocese of Winchester has announced plans to establish a new church community in Townsend, on the edges of Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

The new community will be based at the local YMCA building and will serve the people of the surrounding housing estate.<\/p>\n

The project is being spearheaded by Rev Ed Haycock, the Diocesan Estates Champion.<\/p>\n

Rev Haycock said, \u201cThe most exciting thing is that God\u2019s already here. There are so many Christians in this community. There are so many people interested in faith and asking questions.<\/p>\n

“For us as a church, we\u2019ve decided to call ourselves Townsend Church because they already exist. God\u2019s people are already here. Our hope is to gather them, to equip and to empower them and give them something to invite their friends, their family, and their neighbours to.”<\/p>\n

He added that a lot of effort has been made to get to know the local community and the key local stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The hope is that the church will also serve vulnerable locals, particularly the elderly, and those struggling with addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love people to know that the church is here for them, that we\u2019re not just on a hill over there or somewhere else, but we are in the community for them, just as God is for them. So, we would love for people to see a visible Christian presence wanting to make a difference,” he said.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that the church will be a blessing to an estate that has its share of challenges, being ranked in the bottom eight per cent for social deprivation in Britain.<\/p>\n

Rev Haycock said, \u201cThere is a lot of need but there\u2019s a beautiful community here as well, and there are people that are already making such a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as undertaking this new project, Rev Haycock will continue to manage his existing parish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m spinning lots of plates because I\u2019ve got commitments to the existing parish as well, but when I sit down and take a breath, the glimpses of God\u2019s kingdom, just make it. The day-by-day conversations about faith help you to know that God\u2019s really up to something,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(Photo: Diocese of Winchester) The Diocese of Winchester has announced plans to establish a new church community in Townsend, on the edges of Bournemouth. The new community will be based at the local YMCA building and will serve the people of the surrounding housing estate. The project is being spearheaded by Rev Ed Haycock, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3082,82,1450,3084,3083,3081],"class_list":{"0":"post-11892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-bournemouth","9":"tag-church","10":"tag-coe","11":"tag-estate","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-pioneers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}