Good news from Pray for Schools!

I was delighted to take part and support Pray Day for Schools this year. It was a powerful prayerful day together and so I am pleased to be able to share the recent update from Pray for Schools all about this Day - if you weren’t able to make it or want to find out more, there are all sorts of updates and resources in their newsletter below. (Sara Iles FCG education assistant).

”Dear praying friends,
Thank you so much for joining us for our Pray Day Zooms on 17 November. We were thrilled to see you and be a part of the wonderful ongoing prayer and support for our schools across the UK. We look forward to hearing how God answers our prayers. At the 5.30 session someone shared a picture of a mature oak tree with us. She felt it related to the flourishing of God’s people in school communities and being a planting for His splendour. I’m sure many of us have seen how Christians can make such a difference in our schools. We hope that the genuine, authentic experience of God helping us to come through the Covid challenges will be a beacon to others searching for meaning and hope…. (Isaiah 61:3). We pray that this will happen in your local area. We promised to send you the links from the day. The full resources can be found on the Pray For Schools website.
The Ten Ways to Pray pdf can be found below and other prayers are here including a meditative prayer for your school community.
To sign up for our termly newsletter and to let us and others know which schools you are praying for, please click here or email Jane.
We are planning similar prayer events during Love Our Schools fortnight (31st January – 14th February) - working with Lichfield and Worcester Diocese as well as our PFS partners on some national zoom days. We will keep you posted!
Do send us feedback from the day along with any answered prayers and encouragement you may have received.

With best wishes Jane Newey PFS England Coordinator Claire Wall PFS Wales Coordinator “

(photo courtesy of Dev Benjamin at Unsplash)

“to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.”

— Isaiah 61:3 NRSV

Webinar 14th December - student mental health & the pandemic

We will be hosting a free webinar on Monday 14th December on the vital and timely topic of student mental health and the pandemic.

This is a free event aimed at supporting university chaplains and anyone else who is interested in this topic. It will take place from 10.30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Our speakers will be Dr Ruth Caleb, MBE who is Chair of the Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education (MWBHE) Working Group and Pete Gaffney who is Student Engagement Officer from Student Minds.

The event will be chaired by Revd Dr Stephen Heap, Chair of the Free Church HE Working Group.

Please register for the webinar using the link below

(photo courtesy of Deniz Altindas at Unsplash)

FCG Privacy Policy

FCG’s privacy policy has been updated and comes into effect from the 1st December 2020.

New statements have been added to cover Higher Education Chaplains, the use of Zoom/Eventbrite and cookies.

Should you have any questions about the updates, please contact FCG at info@freechurches.org.uk.

New report about integrating Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural teaching and learning in FE

Over the last few years, the Free Church Education Committee has been actively engaged with discussing and developing ways in which our member churches might become more fully involved in the life and times of our local further education colleges. This has been the mission of the Further Education Working Group, chaired by Dr John Wise - a group which includes teachers, governors, chaplains and pastors (pictured below). You can read more about this here.

We are delighted to announce that Dr John Wise, our working group chair and long standing member of the Free Church Education Committee, has penned an important report, with his colleague Dr Ian Jones (Director of St Peter’s Saltley Trust).

This report is a vital and timely contribution to the teaching and learning of SMSC in further education. The reports begins with asserting: “All good further education providers are passionately committed not just to the delivery of high quality courses, but to the development of their students as whole people, able to make a positive contribution to society through their work and the rest of their lives. This means attending to learners’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC), as well as to their subject knowledge and skills.” You can read the full report and find out more on the link below.

Chair of the Free Church Education Committee, Professor Graham Handscomb, wholeheartedly commends the report.

“An impressive piece of work and such a valuable resource”

— Professor Graham Handscomb

From left to right: Pastor Lester Freckleton, Rev Alistair Smeaton, Professor Graham Handscomb, Rev Sara Iles, Dr John Wise, Anthony Alderman

(cover photo courtesy of Bernd Klutsch at Unsplash)

Praying across the UK for all of our schools tomorrow!

We are delighted to share with you all news of the forthcoming Pray Day for Schools coming up on Tuesday! Join us as we pray together - there are 3 different events across the day to join in with (timings below) - if you are not free at those times, you can still get involved and use this sheet as ten ways to pray for our schools…

Here at the Free Churches Group, we play an active part in the dynamic prayer network of the Pray for Schools steering group. For further information and how to get involved, here is an extracts from their recent newsletter:

“If you're new to Pray for Schools (PFS), welcome!
We've been keenly aware - as I'm sure you are too - of the importance of prayer over this Covid period. It truly is the key to revival and prayer for our young people is particularly significant.
Please read our newsletter for more thoughts on this.

Tuesday 17 November is Pray Day!
Please join Celia Bowring of CARE and Jane Newey from Pray for Schools for a Zoom Prayer Session
** 9.30am with Lisa Jones from Scripture Union and Bev Smith from Youth For Christ

** 5.30pm with Ebony Fennell from Prayer Spaces in Schools and Toni Coulton of Chaplaincy Central
Please register using this link
Worcester Diocese is also hosting a Zoom Prayer session at 1.45pm with Julie Jeffries from Open the Book - register here for this meet up.
Let's keep on praying!
Jane Newey , Pray for Schools England Coordinator”

(photo courtesy of Fa Barboza at Unsplash)