May Peace be your gift at Christmas and may Joy, Hope and Love be your treasure in the New Year.
Best wishes from the Staff of Free Churches Group.
Coffee and chat at 4pm today for university chaplains
Coffee and chat for HE chaplains is a weekly opportunity to come together (virtually) with other chaplains. There is no fixed agenda, so you can bring questions, ideas, things that are bothering you, celebrations …
Each session lasts an hour and concludes with time for reflection and prayer, in a very relaxed and gentle way, often with visuals and music.
Coffee and chat takes place alternately on Monday mornings at 10 a.m. and Thursday afternoons at 4 p.m. We use Zoom as the platform and the codes are available on this page.
Coffee and Chat 4 p.m. today
Look out on our website for dates coming up in the new year.
Every blessing for a peaceful Christmas.
(photo courtesy of Tyler Nix at Unsplash)
Dynamic millennial Pentecostal leader appointed to CTE team
Churches Together in England (CTE) is delighted to announce the appointment of Shermara Fletcher to the role of Principal Officer for Pentecostal, Charismatic and Multi-cultural Relations, commencing in March 2021. Shermara will lead CTE’s work amongst Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, as well as facilitating CTE’s new Racial Justice Working Group.
For the full press release and learn more about Shermara:
On behalf of the Free Churches Group, we offer hearty congratulations to Shermara and we look forward to working with her in our ecumenical groups!
Shermara Fletcher
Vacancy for Free Church Chaplain at The University of Exeter
The University of Exeter are welcoming applications for the post of University Chaplain.
They are looking for an enthusiastic and creative person with excellent interpersonal skills and pastoral sensitivity, to take up this exciting new post as part of the Exeter University Multifaith Chaplaincy team. It will be a half time post of 20 hours per week.
Applications are invited from members in good standing with one of the sponsoring denominations (Baptist, Methodist, or United Reformed).
The closing date for the vacancy is 12th February 2021 and interviews will take place on 26th February.
For further information about the post and how to apply:
Churches will play vital role in bringing communities together post-Covid-19
CHURCHES WILL PLAY VITAL ROLE IN BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER POST-COVID-19
Churches in the UK have a unique opportunity and rich resources to bring local communities together in a post-Covid-19 world where loneliness and inequality look set to rise, claims the Free Churches’ report on The Church and Social Cohesion.
The report calls on every church in the UK to assess whether it is using its resources to the best of its ability to improve social cohesion at the very grassroots level. It identifies the following assets that local churches may have, including the vision to serve, which is based on a local knowledge of and commitment to their neighbourhoods:
Buildings - to hold community events (which can foster everything from church events to mother and toddler groups or foodbanks).
Networks - that bring people together from different backgrounds and can be used to send information quickly into communities in times of need.
Leadership – not just faith leadership at a formal level but also encouraging and nurturing young Christians to lead, something which should be further developed.
Convening power – bringing people together offering conversational space.
Volunteering – providing and co-ordinating volunteers and events.
Vision - the desire to shape and transform communities, which is intrinsic to the core values of Christianity.
The Church, with its strong vision and desire to “love your neighbour as yourself”, has an important role to play in helping to bring communities together.
“Most Christians wouldn’t naturally think of the work they are doing in communities as “social cohesion” work, because that is the language of policy makers. However, in their quiet, everyday ministries of neighbour-love, they are building the links we rely on to call ourselves ‘a community’, all the time. We hope this research helps both policymakers and churches themselves to recognise this.”
The challenge for each local church is to look at what you’re already doing to encourage and support social cohesion in the places God calls you to serve.
What needs strengthening and where can you do more?
(Article adapted from press release by Theos Think Tank on 26th November. The areas visited for the research were: Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Cornwall, Croydon, Derby, East Lindsey, Haringey, Middlesbrough, Newham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Solihull, and Thanet.)