The Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham will be going back to the church he attended as a student next week, while churches around the diocese get set for the annual Back to Church Sunday weekend.
The Rt Revd Paul Butler, was a member of Christ Church, Chilwell, during the 1970s while he was studying at the University of Nottingham. The special visit on Monday 20th September will be his first official return to the church since he became bishop earlier this year.
He said: “I’m looking forward to seeing the changes and hopefully meeting some familiar faces from the past. Christ Church gave me a very warm welcome all those years ago when I was a student and I’m sure it is just as good today at welcoming in newcomers. Back to Church Sunday is a great opportunity for us all to invite old friends or new neighbours to church, often people are only waiting to be asked!”
PHOTO opportunity: There will be an opportunity for a photo of Bishop Paul going back to his student church for the first time at Christ Church, Chilwell, College Road, Chilwell, Nottingham NG9 4AS on Monday 20th September 2010 at 10.30am.
Back to Church Sunday will be good preparation for churches across Nottingham as they prepare to welcome an influx of students in the coming weeks as both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University begin a new academic year with some 50,000 full time students starting courses.
Just over 30 churches are taking part in the special welcome across the Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham. This year personal invitations will go from some 4,000 churches including Church of England dioceses and congregations from Churches Together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, Baptist, Methodist, United Reformed, Salvation Army and Elim Pentecostal churches nationwide, and by a number of Anglican churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada, making Back to Church Sunday the largest single local-church invitational initiative in the world.
In addition to posters and personalised invitations, the day is being supported by radio advertising both locally and nationally. The welcome message in the form of a 30 second commercial will be broadcast on TRAX FM and nationally across the Classic FM and Heart FM networks which will reach an estimated 1.3million people.
Back to Church Sunday began in Manchester in 2004, spread to Wakefield Diocese in 2005, nine dioceses in 2006, 20 in 2007, 38 in 2008, and all 44 in 2009, when an estimated 82,000 people came back to church across the UK. The Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham has been taking part in Back to Church Sunday for the past three years.
