Black Country Churches Engaged
the sub-region’s ecumenical intermediate body
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About Us
The "Owners"
In order to relate to the Black Country as a sub-region and, for instance to the Black Country Consortium, the churches struggle with their own boundaries.
The Black Country is part only of:
The Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham
The Heart of England Baptist Association
The West Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church
The Midlands Division of the Salvation Army
Central England Quakers
For other denominations, parts of the Black Country are within:
The Birmingham Diocese of the Church of England (the Warley Deanery)
The Lichfield Diocese of the Church of England
The Worcester Diocese of the Church of England
The Birmingham District of the Methodist Church
The Wolverhampton & Shrewsbury District of the Methodist Church
Each of these areas is represented "round the table" of Black Country Churches Engaged, and joined by an Orthodox representative, a leader of the black majority churches, and representatives of The Net.
The endorsement of the aims and objects of BCCE was made on 11th May, 2000. Shown in the photgraph taken at Wednesbury are (L-R) the Rev Bill Snelson, Major Ron Smith, the Rev Brian Nicholls, the Rev Elizabeth Welch, the Rev Frank Lewis, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Rev Peter Curry, the Rt Rev Mark Santer, Mr Gilbert Rowley, the Rt Rev Peter Selby, the Rt Rev Michael Bourke, and Mr Mike Topliss.
Photo. Rev Bob Powell
The Officers
The President, who chairs the Church Leaders' Meeting and represents the Church Leaders on the Enabling Group is the Rt Rev Monsignor Canon Patrick McKinney.
The Enabling Group Chair has been the Rev Pat Nimmo and she isnow replaced by the Rev Stuart Davis.
The Chair of the Sponsoring Body is the Rev Peter Christie.
The Honorary Treasurer is Mr Ken Timmis, JP, MBE, LCIE.
The Industrial Mission Officer The Leader of the Black Country Urban Industrial Mission has just retired.
The Black Country Ecumenical Officer is Mr Michael Topliss, who is employed to work part-time. Mike attends the Church Leaders' Meeting, and is secretary of the Enabling Group and the Sponsoring Body (for Local Ecumenical Partnerships). He represents BCCE on the West Midlands Region Churches' Forum and maintains links with Churches Together in Britain & Ireland and specifically with Churches Together in England. 
He aims to supply the LEPs and Churches Together Groups (and now through this web-site a more wide-spread clientele among the churches!) with useful information. He is available as a preacher on ecumenical occasions or in the Partnerships, and as a speaker at Churches Together group meetings. Or perhaps he might to do something completely different: he contributes occasionally to one CT group's monthly newspaper and has led another group's Quiet Day in a convent!
Mike is retiring later this year. From 1st October the Ecumenical Mission Officer (for Black Country Churches Engaged and Churches Linked Across Staffordshire & the Potteries) will be the Rev. Philip Webb, a Baptist minister. For more, click EMO above.
Office Address:
18 Selman’s Hill
Bloxwich
Walsall
West Midlands
WS3 3RJ