My name is Joe Hasler.  I am married to Joy. We have six grown up children.

In 1972 I found myself living in an ex–Methodist manse on a council housing estate in Birmingham. In a household of young Christians, I found myself back amongst the surrounding white working class culture of my childhood, although it took me many years to be able to put words to that cultural awareness. I was employed as a community development worker on this housing estate at a time when most of such work was being done in the inner-city housing action areas. From then on I worked among, and mostly lived in, the council built homes of Birmingham, Essex, Liverpool and Bristol. With the on-set of my mid-life crises, one response to the many personal questions that arose was to be ordained as a deacon, and then a priest, in the Church of England. Since then I have lived in council house areas and worked as a parish priest.

The resources here are aimed particularly at estate churches. How you adapt them for your own needs will be of interest to me. I hope you will use the contact page to let me know about this, or any gaps you experience in the resources available to mission and ministry in our localities.

The key phrases that express my own interests are

• Mission and Working class culture
• Housing Estate churches
• Enculturation and Liturgy
• Community Development