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In the city centres of Oxford and Cambridge in June, people from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, Turkey, China, Russia and atheists from the UK stopped to hear a presentation of the gospel as a United Beach Missions ‘Christian Answer’ team preached and witnessed for the Lord Jesus.

Many stopped, asked questions and listened to reasoned, interactive, Christian presentations: ‘How can God allow evil?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Reasons not to be an atheist’, ‘Did Jesus rise from the dead?’ And then there were the very many personal conversations as people willingly and eagerly discussed the claims of Jesus Christ.

Supporters of the European Missionary Fellowship (EMF) in the north-west of England gathered at Chorlton Evangelical Church, Manchester on March 8 for an afternoon conference.

A report was given by EMF missionary Volodymyr Kostyshyn, who pastors a church in Ternopil, west Ukraine, both about his own ministry and also about recent political developments in Ukraine.

There was a glossy feel to the annual meetings of the Grace Baptist Mission on Saturday 27 October.

First of all, the venue, the Friends Meeting House in Euston, London had been refurbished – new seats, new stage, flashy data projector equipment and perhaps best of all new loos!

The first week of November saw over 460 delegates meeting on the Norfolk coast for what is fast-becoming a key gathering for gospel-focused leaders in the free churches. It was this year’s FIEC Leaders’ Conference. Julian Hardyman (Eden Baptist, Cambridge) described it as ‘unmissable’ and ‘one of the highlights of my year’!

By any standards it was an outstanding time with spiritually nourishing, expository preaching, excellent seminars, encouraging reports of developments within the FIEC family of churches, well-led corporate worship and many informal opportunities to encourage one another in ministry. In the final session, John Stevens (FIEC national director) said simply: ‘I think we met the Lord Jesus together’. It would be hard to find a better or truer description of the week.

A service of thanksgiving for the new building of Lower Ford Street Baptist Church (LFSBC) in Coventry was held on 11 October.

The official opening had already taken place on 14 September when the Lord Mayor of Coventry, the local MP, and those involved in the construction attended. The previous building, strategically located on the edge of the city centre near to Coventry University and opened in 1857, was no longer fit for purpose. Rebuilding started in 2013. Hillfields Evangelical Baptist Church and Durbar Avenue Evangelical Church kindly shared their services/buildings while LFSBC were ‘homeless’.

‘Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them’ (Psalm 111:2), were the words with which Martin Leech, director of the European Missionary Fellowship (EMF) opened one of the sessions at the mission’s October Autumn Conference.

EMF missionaries came from Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain and the UK to stay at Guessens, Hertfordshire – the Mission’s HQ – for a long weekend of Bible ministry, reports, prayer, discussion and fellowship. Public meetings were held at Guessens on the Friday evening at which Matt Hill, the new director of Spanish Christian publishing house Editorial Peregrino and István Salánki from London’s Hungarian Reformed Church spoke of their ministries.

London City Mission (LCM) held its annual Thanksgiving Service on September 17 with guest speaker Andy Paterson, Mission Director with FIEC, inspiring and motivating LCM staff and supporters alike as he called on them not to lose their nerve or to give up on sharing the gospel verbally.

He also challenged LCM to: ‘Help plant and support indigenous gospel-hearted churches with some of the brilliant evangelists that you have. You need to work with those churches so that they effectively welcome and grow people who are coming to faith in Christ. Please use your expertise to develop a generation of working-class church leaders’. Thirdly, he impressed upon the LCM the role it has to play in helping to train and equip churches in London to cross cultural boundaries and create truly multiracial, multi-ethnic churches in London.

On October 1, the Reform Council expressed its dismay that the objectives of the ‘Shared Conversations on Scripture, Sexuality and Mission’ had been changed. As a result orthodox Anglicans had been, in effect, excluded.

It has called on its members not to participate under these conditions.