Resource Church: Licensing of Catherine Duce

Revd Catherine Duce was licensed on Wednesday as Assistant Vicar for Partnership Development at St Martin-in-the-Fields by The Rt Revd Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington. Catherine’s role is to further develop HeartEdge in London, while also leading on Nazareth Community partnerships more generally and supporting other key initiatives at St Martin’s. Her appointment has been made possible because St Martin’s has been designated as a resource church by the Diocese of London.

The role that Catherine is now taking on is one which is part of the Resource Church initiative that Bishop Ric has pioneered in the Diocese of London and more widely. Resource churches are essentially those that are able to share with and support other churches in their mission and ministry. Many Resource churches in London will use the model of church planting but, here at St Martin's, the resource that we are sharing is HeartEdge, the ecumenical movement for renewal that we initiated in February 2017.

HeartEdge is a growing network of churches and other organisations in which ideas for and approaches to mission are shared and where the challenges faced by churches today are honestly explored. We have a programme of introductory events, mission model workshops and consultancy days which provide opportunities for mutual learning and support the revitalization of churches and, with Catherine’s help, will plan more London-focused events. Catherine's role is to grow HeartEdge in London, supporting existing member churches and encouraging more churches to join this movement for renewal.

Please do pray that God will take all that Catherine brings to this role from her previous experience and use it powerfully in the development of mutual support between churches, the revitalization of congregations and the growth through those congregations of new worshipping communities.

Catherine can be contacted on 020 7766 1127 or catherine.duce@smitf.org and would love to hear from you. She will be seeking to visit all HeartEdge members in London, so expect to hear from her before too long. We would also love to draw more churches into the movement for renewal that is HeartEdge, so do suggest other churches with which Catherine could share information.

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Take O Take Me As I Am.