A crucial role for places of worship in the Prevent agenda

It’s not enough just to do the bare minimum, argues Sam Parrett, (OBE and CEO of London South East Colleges), who believes colleges have a true duty of care: Ms Parrett writing in the FE Week Journal on 3rd October 2017. 

Linking with your local college, as an active place of worship, may be a really useful and practical step that your church can take. This can help in supporting the students and the wider local community to have a greater understanding of faith groups and religion. 

Sam Parrett talks about how the colleges in her area work together to develop a cohesive and flexible plan of working with and engaging in the community. She writes: 

"Our student experience team holds debates throughout the year in which students have the opportunity to voice their opinions, thoughts and concerns on various issues, ranging from ‘Are you a global citizen?’ to human rights.

We also arrange visits to various places of worship for a number of faiths, and students have the opportunity to come back to college and discuss their experiences and any thoughts arising from the visits.

By widely and regularly promoting the right kinds of values, our aim is to minimise the wrong ones. Rather than focusing on explicit messages relating to radicalisation, we are working hard to promote a positive and supportive environment. We are ambitious about this spiritual and social aspect of college life and we have recently become a UNICEF rights-respecting organisation, which is also underpinning our approach."

To read the full article in the online FE Week Journal - see HERE.

To find out more about how to make this happen, please contact Sara Iles at the Free Churches Group: sara.iles@freechurches.org.uk 

(Photo by Sara Iles)

What do you do if you are worried about a local school? Do you feel concerned? Do you wonder what can be done? Or do you pray?

Supporting schools through prayer....

Have you got plans for you and your church on Tuesday 21st November? Why not be part of a national day of prayer for schools?

The third Tuesday of November every year is Pray Day, when schools across Europe and around the world are the focus of prayer.  This year it will be held on Tuesday 21st November 2017, with schools across the UK taking part. Se this link for further information. 

If you haven’t heard about it before, this is a day set aside every year for people across Europe to focus on praying for their schools, with events taking place in many countries including the UK.  The day is for:

• all types of school from nursery to sixth form,
• pupils, school staff, governors, parents, church leaders, youth workers and anyone else concerned about young people,
• anyone who believes that God hears our prayers.

The theme this year is from Paul's letter to the Corinthians:

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God." (2 Cor 5 v 18-20)

You could get involved by:

• Telling young people about our campaign;
• Use Social media to promote #SayDoPray;
• Just praying on your own;
• Running a prayer meeting or a Prayer Marathon in your school for pupils and/or staff;
• Organising a prayer evening for everyone from your church;
• Setting up a stall in or outside a school and offering to pray for pupils and staff;
• Leading a school assembly about what prayer means to Christians;
• Teaching an RE lesson on how and why Christians pray;
• Prayer Walking around your local school and area  – see our   video
• Give a gift of a plant or a cake to the teachers in your school.

Why not find our more about this, get involved and make it a date for prayer and action?! See HERE. 

(Photo, used with permission, from Rachel Kane, The Salvation Army, from a recent Pray Day event - Rachel is a member of the Free Church Education Committee.)

There are 30,000 schools in the UK, and Pray for School’s vision is to see every single one of them supported by regular Christian prayer. Pray for Schools is not an organisation to ‘join’, but a network that exists simply to encourage prayer for schools in partnership with prayer groups, churches and Christian organisations. With prayer the combined efforts of Christian teachers, parents, governors, school board members and many others will become more effective.

Reforming Christianity: A new resource for Key Stages 2-4

Welcome to REforming Christianity

An inspiring and interesting range of RE teaching resources about the Reformation has been commissioned by the Free Churches Group and The Methodist Church, sponsored by the Westhill Endowment and produced in association with RE Today Services.

A new teaching resource for Religious Education for teachers

working with children and young people at Key Stages 2-4.

These resources are free to download and use in RE classrooms. 

How can I get these resources?

Simply e-mail us at education@freechurches.org.uk
We will send you a password which will give you full access to all the resources.

All we ask in return is that you complete a questionnaire when you have used some or all of the resources for your age-group. We will use your feedback to develop further resources, and will have a better understanding of what works well in the classroom.

The resources consist of:

• 6 x Key Stage 2 lessons - A man called Luther; What was Luther's gift to the people? The Bible in translation; Wycliffe and Tyndale; Christian reformers
• 6 x Key Stage 3 lessons - Martin Luther and how the church changed; The Bible in English; Non-conforming in England; How Christian attitudes to slavery changed; the Bible and slavery. 
• 6 x Key Stage 4 lessons (in line with GCSE specifications) - Visions of Salvation (beliefs and teaching); Trinity (beliefs and teaching); Worship (practices); Local Church (practices); Baptism (practices); Eucharist (practices). 

(Image shared, with kind permission of mission enabler, Adrian Wyatt of Xross Purposes. Visio Divina photography workshops; ade.wyatt@gmail.com tel: 07976 362 615)

FCG Education Prayer (Week 5) - focus on all those in formal and informal education

Loving God,

We pray for all of those in formal and informal education: for those in colleges, universities, in our churches, our Bible study groups, our local schools, for those throughout our community centres, in evening classes and those exploring new pathways. Guide them and support them.

We pray that it is a time of transformation, joy, challenge, personal growth and vocational.
We pray for those in training for ministry and Christian service in our own denominations and across the member churches of the Free Churches Group.

We pray for the students and tutors involved in theological education and ministerial formation. May God uphold, provoke and guide them.

We pray for all those who are on a path to seek 'life in all its fullness' (John 10:10).

Loving God, encourage us to keep praying on this, to learn and share more about the gift of
education and to act with courage, conscience and conviction in your name!

In Jesus' name, our friend and teacher,

Amen

(Image shared, with kind permission of Adrian Wyatt of Xross Purposes. Visio Divina photography workshops; contact Adrian for further information on -ade.wyatt@gmail.com tel: 07976 362 615)