City Links- The Story So Far...

City Links was launched in 2003, following 10 years of united prayer in Manchester. The vision is to bring churches, cities and nations together in prayer in order to inspire action; bringing about spiritual and social transformation.

This vision has been enacted through a variety of initiatives over the years; growing from Manchester based projects, to reaching across the North West. By 2006, some initiatives had reached a national level, and since then we have had international interest!

In 2004, three of our early projects were launched; North West Leaders' Forum, Redeeming the Arts, and Redeeming Our Communities.

The North West Leaders' Forum built on networks established when Debra Green organised the Manchester Leaders' Lunches. Since its launch, the forum has been meeting several times a year, featuring inspirational speakers; the days have given leaders from a wide variety of churches, mission agencies and secular organisations an opportunity to network, and be encouraged and refreshed. In 2009 the meetings have been rebranded as the City Links Leaders' Forum, which is already proving succesful in its aim to open up the days to a wider range of leaders. Follow this link to learn more about the City Links Leaders' Forum,.

Redeeming the Arts was launched with a gathering at The Lowry Theatre in Salford, with an aim of bringing together a network of Christians involved in any branch of the Arts. The large gatherings offered a chance for corporate worship, prayer for the Arts, prayer for secular agencies involved in the Arts (such as the BBC), and also time for artists to receive individual prayer and encouragement. The network established gave an opportunity for artists to share ideas, promote their work, and collaborate on projects. An example of this was The Album, which featured new tracks from Christian musicians across the North West; The Album 2005 and The Album 2006 are both avalable throught the City Links Shop.

Redeeming Our Communities was launched in the North West, with an event at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton in September 2004. The initiative had been inspired through prayer initiatives that had been ongoing around Manchester since 1998, when Debra had felt called to start praying for the Police, and finding ways to show them that the church was supportive of them and their work. The Redeeming Our Communities launch event saw Christians from many churches joining together with VIP guests from the Police, Councils and Government to look at crime, it's causes, how the Church could be effective in crime reduction, and praying that in the next 12 months crime would be reduced. A year on, newspapers published a report that showed their had been an 11% reduction in violent crime in the North West!

In 2006, Redeeeming Our Communities was launched nationally, as part of a Trumpet Call event at the NEC in Birmingham. Since this launch, we have seen Area Co-ordinators take on the project in over 26 areas; we have hosted two Nuts and Bolts conferences to resource the church for community transformation, and have produced a wide variety of resources to equip Redeeming Our Communities groups. In 2009, we are launching the Redeeming Our Communities 10 Cities Strategy, which will see us working strategically with Church networks and Police forces in 10 cities across the UK. More information about the Redeeming Our Communities initiative can be found here.

In 2005, Debra Green released her first book, "City Changing Prayer". This was followed in 2008 with "Redeeming Our Communities: 21st Century Miracles of Social Transformation". Both books are available from the City Links shop.

During the five years of City Links, we have also hosted some other projects, such as the Staffroom ( a Christian Teachers Network), the Ark (Christian Social Workers Network), Carriers of the Fire Women's Conferences, and a large scale evangelistic event in Manchester with J.John called 'Game of Life'.

Vikki Grime, 15/01/2009