An Invitation to Hope: Mission through Prayer and Lament, 9 February 2021, 10 am

An Invitation to Hope: Mission through Prayer and Lament will take place on 9 February 2021, 10 am to 11.30 am. Please join us and please pass this invitation on to your friends and colleagues. Christian leaders from all spheres are warmly encouraged to attend.

We are in the middle of a protracted pandemic. Not just in wider society but among church leaders, there's a sense of weariness about Covid – and also a wariness about the larger convulsions affecting our society that the present focus has somewhat masked. How are we called to lead in this context? It’s time to come together to pray, reflect and ask a key question: what is God saying to us?

Many of you will have attended the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast last June, and the webinar afterwards on Mission during Lockdown and Beyond. Following on from that, we are delighted to let you know that we are hosting another webinar in February in which we are inviting the Church to pray and lament for our nation, as we seek God for his missional heart for this cultural moment. Please join us at this significant time.

Led by Christian leaders from multiple traditions and cultural spheres, we will spend time in lament, prayer and reflection, asking God what he is doing and how we can partner with him in a new wave of mission across our country. We so hope you will be able to join us.

Do have a look at the short video from our Chief Executive, Paul Williams to find out more. You can book your free place now.

Please visit the Bible Society website HERE for details of the programme.

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)

Building Back Better Conference: The Church and Social Cohesion, 26th Nov 2020, 10:30AM

The launch of a report from the Free Churches Group assessing the impact of churches on social cohesion.

Date and Time: Thu, 26 November 2020, 10:30 – 11:30

Location: Online Event, booking via Eventbrite here.

The toxicity of the Brexit debate, a summer of Black Lives Matter protests, and the struggle to balance personal freedom with group responsibility throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have not only made clear how vitally important social cohesion is, but have also underlined that cohesive societies do not just happen by accident. Rather, time and effort are required to build up social capital over time – and this report particularly uncovers the many ways in which the nation’s churches are offering this time and effort in abundance.

The Church and Social Cohesion: Connecting Communities and Serving People is the culmination of a major research project commissioned by the Free Churches Group and prepared by Theos think tank, which has consulted with over 360 people in England to assess the churches’ social cohesion contribution on the ground.

In contrast to the crisis-driven approach of the major cohesion policy interventions of the last 20 years, The Church and Social Cohesion concentrates on the range of church-based assets that are fostering positive cohesion outcomes away from the headlines: buildings, social networks, convening power, leadership, volunteer capacity, and (perhaps most importantly) vision for the transformation of their communities. Moreover, it observes the Christian motivations behind this day-to-day community engagement, and unpacks the different ways these motivations can play out in the churches’ relationships with other organizations, whether public sector representatives, other faith communities, or indeed other churches.

Finally, it offers a number of practical recommendations for how both churches and policymakers can maximize the churches’ potential to foster social cohesion in the community. Churches are an important element of the nation’s social fabric, and the cohesiveness of our societies will grow stronger if churches and policymakers alike recognize the distinctive assets that they have to offer.

Join us for the virtual launch of this report, hosted by FaithAction, to listen to a presentation from Theos on the findings of the report and participate in a panel discussion chaired by the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP featuring:

Hugh Osgood, Moderator of the Free Churches Group
Madeleine Pennington, Head of Research at Theos
Rev Dr. Joel Edwards CBE, formerly of Evangelical Alliance and Micah Challenge International
Manmit Bhambra, Research Officer at the LSE’s Religion and Global Society Research Unit

Booking available via Eventbrite HERE.

*This event features as part one of FaithAction's three-part conference - Building Back Better: The Role of Faith. See HERE to book the rest of the day's events and the event flyer here.

Pray Day for Schools on 17th November

Here at the Free Churches Group, we play an active part in the dynamic prayer network of the Pray for Schools steering group.

We are delighted to share with you all news of the forthcoming Pray Day for Schools coming up next Tuesday, 17th November.

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

Worcester Diocese is also hosting a Zoom Prayer session at ** 1.45pm ** with Julie Jeffries from Open the Book

Let's keep on praying!
Jane Newey , Pray for Schools England Coordinator”

(photo courtesy of Jon Tyson at Unsplash)