Jesus Army
The Jesus Army, also known as the Jesus Fellowship Church and the Bugbrooke Community, was a neocharismatic evangelical Christian organisation based in the United Kingdom, which has been considered as a cult. Part of the British New Church Movement, the name Jesus Army was used specifically for the outreach and street-based evangelism for which they were known.
The Jesus Fellowship was founded in 1969 by Noel Stanton (1926–2009), who at that time was the lay pastor of the Baptist chapel in the village of Bugbrooke near Northampton. It expanded in the ensuing decades by appealing to a younger generation of worshippers. As the new church grew and became more charismatic in nature, many of the original congregation left to continue worshipping in more traditional churches. The Fellowship continued to grow considerably and by 2007 consisted of approximately 3,500 members in around twenty-four congregations in various cities and towns of the UK. The church frequently engaged in evangelism in public places, seeking through outreach to demonstrate the love of Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Fellowship used various slogans, in its early days adopting "Love, Power & Sacrifice" and later "Jesus People, Loving People," and the name "Jesus Army."
The Jesus Fellowship announced in May 2019 that it "will cease to exist and the current National Leadership Team will be stepping down from their roles once the winding up of the central Church has been completed." Members had voted on 26 May 2019 to revoke the church's constitution, after a decline in membership to less than 1,000 following claims against Stanton and two other then-members of the church of a history of sexual assault during the 1970s. It was planned that the Jesus Centres charity organized by the church would continue to operate and that individual churches would become independent congregations. Fewer than 200 people were still living in communal households of the Fellowship.
In October 2021 Companies House certified the change of name from Jesus Centres Trust (1165925) to JCT - Joining Communities Together Limited. Since December 2020, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust existed as a residuary body with the sole purpose of winding up the administrative affairs of the Jesus Fellowship Church. A 2024 "Final Report," described as "staggering," stated that a Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme was available "to those who have suffered harm, abuse and/or adverse experiences within the Jesus Fellowship community. It also provided a clear process for employment, pension, national insurance and retirement claims."
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