Ekklesia
About Ekklesia
Ekklesia is a not-for-profit thinktank which promotes radical theological ideas in public life through a radical approach.
In April 2005 it was ranked by the Independent newspaper as one of the top 20 British thinktanks
An initiative of the Anvil Trust, Ekklesia provides a daily news briefing service, regular public comment, conferences, consultancy and workshops in a range of areas combining both practical and theoretical knowledge to encourage the expression of a radical theological perspective. It also produces publications and papers in a range of public policy areas and has a network of associates who speak on social and ethical issues.
As part of its mission, Ekklesia also produces a news syndication service which brings a theological perspective on the daily news agenda. Hundreds of churches now carry Ekklesia’s news headlines on their web sites. The news syndicated via the google and yahoo news services.
Ekklesia has no salaried staff. It works on a co-operative basis, and so all money given to Ekklesia is maximised to its fullest potential. It does not seek large funders, but encourages people to become partners in its work. Ekklesia has a developing web presence and is one of the highest ranked religious web sites in the UK. For an idea of how Ekklesia measures up click here.
Ekklesia emerged in 2002 from “Workshop”, a radical theological training programme that has been running in the UK for almost 25 years. To find out more about Workshop, visit The Workshop web site This gives more detail about the vision, values and people behind Ekklesia.
Why “Ekklesia”?
The democratic system of government present in Athens, Greece, intermittently in the 500 years before the death of Christ, has been hailed by many as the forerunner to modern democracy. In order to commune and make decisions, the city-state of Athens met in the “Ekklesia”, or people’s assembly, to which any citizen over the age of 20 had a right to attend, speak, and vote.
When the early church had to choose a word to describe themselves one of the main words that they chose was also “Ekklesia” – this secular, political term. Although the Christian faith has been frequently separated from politics, when you consider that the central message of Jesus ministry was of a new kingdom, and that his death was politically motivated, the choice is perhaps not surprising.
Workshops
Conferences
Discussion
E-mail news
For more information please visit the website.