West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council: Unity Post

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A brief post today to draw your attention to some good practice from West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council, rather appropriately known as WYEC. 

WYEC exists to promote Christian Unity and brings together churches, church leaders and church projects in shared witness, mission and prayer. We try to encourage local Churches Together groups, and any activities which build up relationships between churches.  There is a big map of Yorkshire in the WYEC office, with a region marked in that stretches from Whernside in the north west – the highest and most rural point – to the contrasting area around Ferrybridge in the south east.

Altogether, the population is over two and a quarter million people. This is the WYEC region, and it covers most of three Anglican Dioceses (Bradford, Ripon & Leeds, and Wakefield), two Methodist Districts (Leeds and West Yorkshire), the Catholic Diocese of Leeds, the West Yorkshire African Caribbean Council of Churches, as well as a large part of the Yorkshire regions of Baptist, United Reformed, Salvation Army, Quaker, Lutheran and Moravian churches.

WYEC consists of senior Church Leaders and Ecumenical Officers from each of these churches. We also try to build up relationships with other churches – Orthodox, Pentecostal, independent… - to encourage Christian people to work together wherever we can. Part of this work is celebrating all that is already happening locally, ecumenically. There is indeed a lot to celebrate.

The main thing I want to draw your attention to is their annual newsletter, Unity Post, which is published as an edition of monthly Catholic Post.  It is an example of copllaboration between traditions and this paper is packed with examples of work of churches together across the region.  The link will take you to the January 2011 edition.