Make space! Creating Church with Newcomers

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Abstract In the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, demographic changes call for new strategies to integrate groups of newcomers in already existing parishes. In 2019, Skalborg, a rapidly growing parish on the outskirts of the city of Aalborg, together with the independent organization Kirkefondet and Centre for Pastoral Education and Research, initiated the project ‘Church with Newcomers’ that seeks to involve new citizens actively in creating relevant forms of church in a new city district. The evaluation of the project team made clear that openness and inclusiveness were seen as core qualities of the project that indicated that this was church. The article explores how the collaborative design and culture of the project team have contributed to realizing the project’s aim. We argue that working with space-making practices may point to fruitful ways of realizing participatory ecclesiology in a changing folk church setting.