Reflections from Revd Bob Wilson, Secretary for the Prison Chaplaincy & Free Churches Faith Advisor

Christmas is …

What words come to mind to you when someone says this? “For the children”, “Too expensive”, “So commercialised”? Or maybe some more positive remarks, “a time for family”, “a time of peace”, or “a time of giving”. I would say that the most common one I hear in prison is “hard”!

Christmas, the time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus as a baby, to Mary and Joseph, in temporary accommodation, in an occupied country, is a wonderful time, but it can be a hard time. It is hard to remember what we don’t have, what we have lost, where we would rather be. All true for Mary and Joseph, and maybe true for us too. Many of us will have lost friends, family, maybe our liberty this year.

But “To us a child is born, to us a son is given” and that birth was unlike any other birth in the history. The child born is the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Saviour of the world. A birth that will change time itself. Not a birth that turns back time, but a birth that gives us hope that time is no longer our enemy; neither hard times, nor good times. We no longer need to see the hands of time as a countdown to be feared, but we see that today, this is the time for life.

Christmas, above everything, is a time for change. A change that God can bring, a change that will bring a whole new order in our lives, a change to how we see everything.

Our Prison Chaplains this year will see many who are struggling in their lives to see beyond the gloom and darkness that is real and everywhere. They will be encouraging thousands of men, women and children to take a little time to pray, a little time to look for and at the Christ child. Maybe we all need to do this anew. Pray as I alone know how to pray, in my own words. Pray that the God who gave us the gift of a saviour at Christmas will step into my life again to lighten the darkness, to scatter the gloom. Maybe we can pray, along with our chaplains, our prisoners, our brothers and sisters that, just as a child was born to Mary, something new and life-changing might be born in our lives this year.

Or maybe just pray that, while Christmas will be hard, you will be able to see a way through to the other side!

And maybe then, rethink the ending to the sentence …

Christmas is …

A happy and peaceful Christmas to everyone

Revd Bob Wilson

Free Churches Faith Advisor to HMPPS

Reflections from Revd Sarah Crane, Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee

Like many of us I am a bit surprised to find myself in December. This year has gone so quickly!

The Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee (HCSC) sits under the Free Churches Group (FCG) Board and is responsible for supporting and shaping the work of Revd Dr Mark Newitt, Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy at FCG.

For the Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee it has been a really full and positive year. We have welcomed a number of new members to the group, Linford Davis and Terry Bentley, both bringing a wealth of experience within healthcare and social care chaplaincy as well, as a broader perspective from other denominations within FCG. Our goal is to as representative as possible of the breadth of our member denominations so we are delighted to have made these appointments. This year we also said a big thank you to Mark Burleigh and Kate Le Sueur, who stood down at the end of their respective terms.

As always in 2024 we have been grateful to Mark for his passion and enthusiasm for the support and development of healthcare chaplains within the FCG and beyond. Through the year, either individual or in partnership with others the FCG has offered:

• Our Annual Study Day in June exploring being on the margins through art, research and story.

• Three Nourishing Roots days shared with chaplains from other contexts providing space to meet and reflect together on our spiritual wellbeing.

• Monthly Pop-Up Reflective Practice providing hour-long sessions for chaplains to come together and reflect on their practice.

• A monthly Research First Journal Club building research literacy through critiquing a recent journal article.

• the Narrative newsletter, and information digest which goes out monthly to more than 600 chaplains within the FCG and beyond.

We are also very pleased to see more members of the committee representing healthcare chaplaincy in other places. Janelle Kingham, Mark Newitt and I have all become directors of the UKBHC in the past six months. (Janelle has also become Vice Chair of the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care in Health.) It is good to know that Free Church healthcare chaplaincy is part of the broader work and conversations which take place across the four nations of the UK and within the representative bodies and other stakeholders.

We look forward to the year ahead in confidence of being able to continue to support chaplains and to influence practice in ways which promote public safety, professionalism, and person-centred care within all healthcare chaplaincy contexts.

Just as chaplaincy requires us to sit with faltering and stilted humanity in moments of raw struggle and real human experience, may we this Advent and Christmas know that the child in the manger comes to do the same for us. As we prepare for Jesus’ coming, we can hold fast to the promises of the Kingdom of God, both now and in all its fullness.

Sarah Crane

Chair, Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee

The First CoNNECT Day

Cover image from fauxels - Photography

Chaplaincy: opportunity for Networking, Nurturing, Encouragement and Community Together

Date: 13th February 2025, 10:30 - 16:00

Venue: Free Churches House, 27 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9HH

Cost  £30 per participant to cover the cost of a light lunch/refreshments and administrative costs.

As part of the development of our  “Chaplaincy Hub”, which we hope to grow into a key resource space for those engaged in or exploring chaplaincy this first CoNNECT Day aims to draw together those with an interest in the development of chaplaincy from different settings and perspectives, including church and denominational leaders, suppliers of chaplaincy training and education as well as providers of chaplaincy services (particularly those beyond traditional settings).

The day will include a keynote address from Mark Birch, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, input exploring evidencing impact, opportunity to hear stories of chaplains (Pecha Kucha presentations) as well as space to network.

 Timetable

10:30  coffee and pastries

11:00  Welcome

11:15  Introduction to outline and purpose of the day

11:30  Keynote address: Mark Birch

12:15  Q & A

12.30  Lunch

13:30  Pecha Kucha presentations

14:00  Evidencing impact

14:45  Refreshment break

15:15  Next steps: facilitated discussion

15:50  Closing remarks and close

Nourishing Roots - with Nicola Slee, 2nd July 2024 at Queen's Foundation, Birmingham

Photo by Dawn McDonald on Unsplash

A day of reflection and retreat for chaplains with Nicola Slee at Queen's Foundation, 18 Somerset Road Birmingham B15 2QH on 2nd July 2024, 10:00-16:00

Please join us on Thursday 2nd July in Birmingham for a day of reflection, retreat and recharging at the Queen's Foundation. Our day will be led by Prof. Nicola Slee. A two-course meal and refreshments for the full day will be provided.

Professor Nicola Slee is Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, and Professor of Feminist Practical Theology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has wide ranging interests in theology, spirituality, poetry and literature, and is a regular speaker at conferences and leader of retreats. Her most recent publications are Fragments for Fractured Times: What Feminist Practical Theology Brings to the Table (SCM, 2020) and Abba Amma: Improvisations on the Lord’s Prayer (Canterbury Press, 2022).’

Cost: £10 for FCG chaplains and £20 for all others (including lunch and refreshments).

For more information and a discount code for Free Church Chaplains, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

National Free Church Prison Chaplains' Training, 7th - 9th May 2024

Photo by Wan San Yip on Unsplash

“Our Reason for Hope”

Venue: Eastwood Hall, Mansfield Road, Eastwood, Nottingham, NG16 3SS

Price: £350

The theme for this year will be “Our Reason for Hope”, and our main speaker will be Rev Dr Joe Boot who runs “The Ezra Institute” .

“Rev. Dr.Joseph Boot (M.A., Ph.D.) is a Christian thinker and cultural apologist, Founder and President of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. He is adjunct instructor for culture and apologetics at Bryan College, Tennessee. He also served as the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel, Toronto, for 14 years.

Now resident home in Great Britain, Joseph has worked in the fields of Christian apologetics, worldview education and church leadership for over twenty-five years on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spoken and guest lectured globally at numerous university events, seminaries, churches, colleges, and conferences. He regularly addresses pastors and Christian leaders as well as academic, medical, legal, and political professionals and has publicly debated leading atheistic thinkers and philosophers in Canada and the United States.”

Registration will start at 11:00.for lunch at 12:30, and the Opening Session at 13:30. The event will finish on the final day at 14:00.Price included the cost of each event is two nights’ accommodation and all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

For more information, please contact Bob Wilson at bob.wilson@freechurches.org.uk