Schools Work Conference on 3rd September 2024

The Schools Work Conference is back, and we are excited to host it at The Flame Community Church!

This conference brings together Christians involved in schools mission or those considering joining this essential work. It inspires and equips youth workers by building their understanding, knowledge, and skills, ultimately helping them guide young people and children to meet Jesus.

We have a brilliant lineup of speakers:

• Phil Knox – Evangelical Alliance

• Joe Lowther – CEO of KICK and former headteacher

• Mark Arnold – Urban Saints

• Amelia Paynter – Chroma Church

• Plus, a number of Youth for Christ staff

Seminar Topics:

• Working with Additional Needs Children and Young People

• The Significance of Facilitating Friendship in Schools Mission

• Engaging the Disengaged

• Issues Facing Schools Today

• From School to Church

For more information and to book your place, please click HERE.

If you have any inquiries, please email us at yfc@yfc.co.uk.

Celebrating the 350th Anniversary of Isaac Watts

Saturday 20 July 10.00-5.00 pm

Chinley Independent Chapel, The Wash Road, Chapel Milton,

Chinley, High Peak, SK23 0QN

The Congregation Federation is hosting a celebration of Watts' Anniversary at Chinley Chapel on Saturday 20 July. This free day will include talks, workshops, hymn-singing, children's activities, and lunch, with guest presenters including the Revd Dr Graham Adams and Revd Dr Janet Wooton. Further details to follow: to register, please email the Revd Peter Sharp at revpetersharp@gmail.com

---

A Celebration of Isaac Watts, including an act of Thanksgiving

Saturday 21 September at 2.30 pm, with gathering music from 2.00 pm.

Melton Mowbray URC, Chapel Street Melton Mowbray Leicestershire LE13 1LZ

Acknowledged as the Father of English Hymnody, Congregational minister Isaac Watts is the author of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Joy to the World," and many other cornerstones of our hymnbooks. He taught briefly in Freeby, Leicestershire, and is associated with Freeby Chapel, which has now merged into Melton Mowbray URC. The year 2024 is the 350th anniversary of Watts' birth, and in celebration, we look forward to welcoming the Rev. Dr. Robert Pope of Westminster College to talk about Watts, his God, and his legacy in the present day. The event will include opportunities to sing and listen to some of Watts' best-loved hymns and will be followed by refreshments, including, of course, Melton Mowbray pork pies.

You are invited to save the date and watch for further details. Information about how to book will be available here soon. 

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

Pop–Up Reflective Practice for the Free Church Healthcare Chaplain

Reflective practice is part of the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities described in the UKBHC Capabilities and Competences (2015) document. Similarly, within the Spiritual Care Competences for Healthcare Chaplains (2020) document agreed for Scotland, is recognised as one of four domains of healthcare chaplaincy competence. As part of the process of continuing professional development chaplains are expected to demonstrates the ability to reflect upon practice in order to develop and inform their professional practice. Reflective practice, as described by Mark Stobert, is a form of supervision that is underpinned by a reflective practice mindset. It uses the potential of ‘reframing’ situations to unearth creative responses to those situations and to develop new knowledge of practice for those situations. Over time it becomes a developing state of mind so that we can reflect in action, not just on action. These pop-up sessions are for anyone to join, but are particularly aimed at those in smaller teams who might otherwise struggle to engage in reflective practice.

Photo by Carolina Heza on Unsplash

Dates for the first part of the year are as follows:

• Thursday January 25th 12:00 to 13:00 

• Tuesday February 20th 09:00 to 10:00 

• Tuesday 26th March 12:00 to 13:00 

• Thursday 25th April 15:30 to 16:30 

• May- TBC

• Monday 10th June 12:00 to 13:00 

• Tuesday 16th July 13:00 to 14:00 

A reflection sheet for chaplains to use before the session to help think about what they might have on their mind and after the session to record learning can be downloaded from here. For more information or links/diary invites to the session, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk