DELEGATES from most of the Church of England's dioceses attended an evangelism consultation day at Bishopthorpe Palace.

The 76 church leaders focussed their discussion on urban estate mission during the event at the Archbishop of York’s Office.

Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, director of mission and public affairs, said: “On many urban estates social issues of generational unemployment, related poverty, lack of educational aspiration, all of which are present elsewhere, become magnified.

"The greatest thing that the church can offer is hope. However we must rise to the challenge of making that hope visible through our actions, our words, and the priorities for the church as a whole.”

Practical examples of effective inner-city and estates ministry included debt advice and budgeting courses, self-help groups and messy church services, delegates said.

Churches which engage with their neighbours real needs, hopes, and fears are more likely to connect and enable people to make Christian faith their own.

In his key note address, the Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev Philip North spoke about the crisis that faces the church on the outer estates.

He said: “A church that abandons the poor has abandoned God. In order to address this crisis we need to confront the huge gulf between the culture of the Church of England and that of the estates.

"We need to find ways of developing local leadership and create contextually appropriate resources.

"We need to think afresh ‘what is the good news on the estates?' and nail the false dichotomy between service and proclamation.

"To withdraw from the estates would be an utter catastrophe because it is the poor who recall the church to its purpose and to the vocation of Christ himself who came to preach good news to the poor.”