Background

Stratford Talks was started by a group of Christian workers whose companies moved into Stratford upon the opening of the International Quarter London.

Having had the opportunity to be involved with similar works elsewhere in the Capital, moving to Stratford created an opportunity to start up a new ministry. 

With Stratford continuing to grow, the hope is that this ministry might reach out far and wide to workers in and around Stratford.

As such, right at the core of this ministry is a weekly central meeting providing short talks from the Bible about Jesus Christ that are tailored for workers in Stratford who are sceptics, enquirers and Christians alike.

Beliefs

We are a group from a range of backgrounds and church denominations but are united by our desire to see Jesus’ message proclaimed to those who haven’t heard it, and our conviction that Christians need to be equipped by the Bible’s teaching to maintain Jesus’ priorities in their workplaces.

As a result, we ensure that all our speakers are happy to sign up to a ‘short’ but core doctrinal basis which we share with the South East Gospel Partnership.

Partnerships

There is a large network of similar workplace ministries under the banner of ‘Gospel at Work’ already established across London. It’s a joy for Stratford Talks to be linked in with this partnership.

To find the closest workplace lunchtime talks to your office, take a look at the Gospel at Work website. 

Furthermore, Stratford Talks seeks to grow partnerships with local churches as workers benefitting from this ministry head back home to be an encouragement to their local congregation outside of their workplace.

Individuals

Matt Evans (Lawyer, FCA) had the initial vision for this ministry back in 2017, when it became clear that the FCA would be moving from Canary Wharf (where Matt had attended the St Peter’s Barge lunchtime talks) to Stratford. As well as leading the Christian Network within the FCA, he has been busy growing a network of Christians from other companies who might partner in this ministry.

Malcolm Peters spent 8 years working in Banking Supervision/Regulation at the Bank of England and the then Financial Services Authority, before training for full-time Ordained ministry, working in 3 separate parishes, before rejoining the Financial Conduct Authority in 2018, once again to supervise wholesale/investment banks. Malcolm’s been driving forward the momentum of Stratford Talks since he came on board.

In addition, Matt and Malcolm approached local church Crossway Stratford, whose staff have previous experience within other Gospel at Work ministries, to see if they’d be willing to support Stratford Talks.

Subsequently, Crossway Stratford set aside part of Andrew Holt’s time to be a support to Matt and Malcolm as they run the ministry, in particular, overseeing the weekly speaking programme.