Cities and urban areas in Europe are undergoing major structural changes. The economic and cultural role of cities is changing rapidly as is the political context. The impacts of the changes on local people and communities are unequal and the proposals of governments for regeneration have varied degrees of success in addressing people's concerns. The 'life world' of people is often not respected in the plans of those in the business of regenerating cities. On the other hand, the churches and faith communities are called on to play an increasing role in meeting social needs and there is much experience of innovation by faith - based groups. Urban mission has a long history of creative engagement with people on local level and on building up their own resistance, action, innovation and celebration.

We begun a process of reflection on this experience in order to strengthen and support urban mission and community work. It is important to do this internationally, in the whole European context and to take seriously the lessons to be learnt from central and Eastern Europe. We emphasise working at local level with the developing diversity of the European context. Here we have to find ways of handling the impacts of globalisation and the enlargement process of the EU.

Colleagues in Liverpool were interested to be involved in developing such a process and as a result of initial discussions. They began the local planning process, which has resulted in a project called Faith in the European City. This programme is focused on supporting community development, urban mission and community organising in cities. It aims to develop a deeper analysis of impact of globalisation on European cities, theological reflection and promote new strategies to address the issue. The very first workshop has been organised in Liverpool in September 2002.

It was a meeting of different group leaders from several European cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Rotterdam, Goteborg, Helsinki or Berlin.

• share the stories of each participant and group
• use the Liverpool context as a ‘mirror’ to highlight the issues
• discover the common threads and differences across the European continent
• uncover the ethical, spiritual, theological and practical implications of the issues raised and to work out the main lines of hopeful strategies for mission
• initiate a European wide learning process and dialogue on these ideas

  All the findings from the workshop have been brought together in a report, which can be used in the networks and to further the process of reflection and exchange. To download the report, click here: report from the workshop in Liverpool

The Manchester workshop has been developed as a second step .It took place in February 2004 and aimed to develop responses to the new urban agenda facing church and society.

Manchester was chosen as a model because it is the first industrial city in the world and it has also been experiencing rapid economic transformation. The traditional economic base of the city collapsed and the impact of this is still being felt in people’s daily lives. But Manchester is a laboratory for new approaches to city development in response to globalisation, which in turn also generates ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. This means that Manchester is a good to explore the issues facing urban mission and to encounter some innovative models of urban mission and community work.

If you want to find out more about the history of Manchester and about its urban regenaration projects, click here: Manchester, an introduction to the city

The total amount of participants was 45 and they came from 9 countries: Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and UK and they were from all different faith groups: Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and Muslims.

 The working programme was targeted on four main issues:

• identifying the role of the church in the urban communities,
• explaining and understanding the changes in the cities caused by globalisation and migration,
• confronting the big regeneration projects which don't involve local people and don't take their interests into account
• and finally encounter with the local reality.

Participants were divided into small groups and each group walked through different parts of the city to expose the reality of different neighbourhoods. The groups also met city council people, church representatives and local grassroots groups. Couple of people were invited to make a presentation on the conference - the bishop of Manchester and representatives of the following projects: young people project, Roby project (community project for mentally ill people) and Community pride project (project operating in poor neighbourhoods with the aim to empower people).

 Many activities have been planned as a follow-up to the conference. These are the most important ones:

• Next meeting will be probably organised in one of the East European cities, but it is still to be decided on the planning group meeting, which will take place in April.
• There will be couple of mutual exchanges between different projects and cities: the group from Goteborg will come to Manchester again, and the exchange between Rotterdam - Manchester will go on including the groups from Goteborg ad Helsinki.
• The German participants would like to create a network for urban mission and urban projects, because there is nothing like this in Germany so far.
• A group of unemployed people from Mannheim will visit Liverpool and Manchester, and probably Holland on its way. This event will take place in September and it is organised by Paul Skirrow and Klaus Peter Spohn-Loge.
• The ECG will work, together with the Finnish colleagues, on a community development, civil society & churches project in Sankt Petersburg, Russia

City to city urban mission exchange is one of the oldest and most succesful ECG urban projects. The very first cities to carry out this exchange were Rotterdam and Manchester.

 There have been many links between urban mission groups, projects and initiatives in Manchester and Rotterdam. These have included exchange visits between UPC/Moss Side and a congregation in the Old West inner city of Rotterdam and common participation in the placement learning programmes related to the DIAK polytechnic in Finland. Some years ago the ECG organised a workshop on urban mission strategies in a globalising economy which was held in Manchester. This was one of the factors leading to the MCPI. There are many similarities between the two cities - notably strong industrial and trading economies that have gone through massive changes and similar strategies for 'regeneration' involving huge private sector projects. Both cities are cities with a long history of migration, in both the churches are in a seemingly permanent turmoil about their strategies. Yet in both, there are spots where there are very exciting initiatives and strong engagement by committed groups over the long term. There has often been discussion about encouraging mutual learning between groups in the two countries, on a more continuous basis. Looking across Europe, these two cities have had some of the most innovative approaches to urban mission and have developed traditions of reflection, analysis and training grounded in local practice.