An update on the ‘New Churches in the North East’ project

The ‘New Churches in the North East’ project is close to completion. At a conference at St Johns College, Durham on 17th April 2015 (for more info, see here) draft findings were presented. The research team estimate that at least 120 new churches have been founded in the North East of England since 1980. Of these, around 40 are based in minority ethnic communities. The new churches represent a major new feature on the religious landscape of the North East. Their existence calls into questions pictures of secularisation that assume that the regions of England are seeing blanket secularisation. The prominence of black and minority ethnic communities within the new churches shows that the North East is significantly more diverse than is often assumed. The final report for the project will be issued in September 2015.