In the late 2010s, with big Love Oxford events well established and a clear buy-in from many churches, we began to ask, “Is there anything else that we should do together? In particular, how might we express our love for the city through practical service?”

Those questions were overtaken by Covid lockdowns, and then everyone was talking about the post-Covid renewal of society. So, in 2022, we brought churches together to discuss those questions at an event called ‘Renew Oxford.’ We were inspired by stories of what was had been done by church networks in other UK cities, and we gathered working groups around education, youth, housing, etc. It was a great first step, which began to stoke our imaginations.

We have since held a number of Renew Oxford events, all exploring what it looks like to be ‘Love Oxford in action.’

• In 2023, we heard from the chief executive of the county council, and discussed a potential manifesto for shared action
• In 2024, we launched a partnership with Safe Families and also began mapping churches across the city, along with their current activities
• In 2025, we published the results of our mapping and named three key areas of joint activity to pursue during 2026
• In 2026, we participated in a ‘network training course,’ clarified the basis of our unity, put transparent leadership arrangements in place, and engaged more deeply with city and county councils

As part of that training course, we were challenged to address the confusing use of two different names (Love Oxford / Renew Oxford), both of which began as names for events but had come to represent much more than that. We decided that it would be better to have just one name, and that it should be Love Oxford.

So, we have closed the Renew Oxford website and replaced it with this new Love Oxford site. We will no longer use the Renew Oxford logo. Our network is called Love Oxford and that’s what we will publicise. For now, our events that focus on social action will continue to be called ‘Renew Oxford,’ for the sake of continuity, but we will make clear that they are to be seen as ‘Love Oxford in Action.’