A farewell as Robert Mountford retires.

It has been a huge privilege to serve as Ecumenical Development Enabler for Birmingham Churches Together for almost six years. At the request of the senior Church leaders, I took on the role ‘for a few hours for a few weeks’ following the retirement of my illustrious predecessor in the role, Revd Colin Marsh. As it transpired, Colin’s retirement in late March 2020 coincided with the beginning of the first national Covid-19 lockdown. My first 15 months in the role, therefore, consisted of remote working, by which means online meetings, e-mails, Birmingham Churches Together website updates and social media posts were conducted. Since the easing of Covid restrictions, the work has taken place both online and in-person.

I am most thankful for the friendship and support of Birmingham’s senior Church leaders, who were each and all gracious friends and supporters, whether representing the Anglican, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Charismatic, Elim Pentecostal, Evangelical, Greek Orthodox, Methodist, Quaker, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Roman Catholic, Romanian Orthodox, Salvation Army, Serbian Orthodox, or United Reformed Church members of the Body of Christ. In addition, over recent years the number of new ethnic and independent Christian groups is proliferating in a most remarkable way.

Among many other connections, I have been privileged to work with CIGB/WorkCare West Midlands, Friends/Neighbours/Changemakers, Restore, Pray24Brum and Time4Change/Time4Brum. Other highlights over the last few years include chairing the West Midlands Churches Commonwealth Games planning group in 2022, facilitating the inaugural Summit of senior West Midlands Church leaders in October 2022, facilitating the ‘Assemblies of God Centenary Pilgrimage’ in Aston in February 2024, helping to stage the national ‘City of Sanctuary Conference’ in Birmingham in June 2024, facilitating the ‘George Fox 400 Pilgrimage’ in Selly Oak in July 2024 and leading the ‘Nicaea 1700 Pilgrimage’ from Lichfield to Bournville in July 2025.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing grace of God – and the practical support given by Lou Bayliss, Maud Grainger, Nick Wallace and Hazel Timmins. As I retire from paid Christian work, I wish every ongoing blessing to the vital work of Birmingham Churches Together and invite each reader to consider how in 2026 you might be part of the answer to the Lord’s dying prayer recorded for us in John 17:20-23:

‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’