Involved in teaching RE? Anti-racist RE resources at the start of the new academic year

Are you or someone you know involved in teaching Religious Education? If so, these anti-racist RE resources for teachers may be helpful as plans develop for teaching this coming year.

The Free Churches Group and Methodist Schools are delighted to be able to offer these resources free of charge to teachers. They have been written and developed by Lat Blaylock from RE Today Services, and a team of teacher-volunteers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds has provided valuable contributions.

In our society it is no longer sufficient to be non-racist, but we need to be equipped to be anti-racist. Many members of the Free Churches Group are engaged in their own conversations about how to combat the inequalities in our society. These resources are a tangible expression of that concern and a contribution to engage with the issues in the public square. There are materials for teaching in both primary and secondary classes. You can download these materials here:

We are grateful to the Westhill Endowment for providing financial support, without which this project would not have been possible.

(cover photo courtesy of Naassom Azevedo at Unsplash)

Jesus says, 'Consider the ravens...'

In Luke’s Gospel, we read that Jesus challenges us to consider the ravens, assuring us that despite the fact that they neither sow nor reap, God still feeds them… The theme for this year’s Prisons Week offers us all the opportunity to reflect upon Christ’s words about God’s abundant and constant love.

Through prayers, films, poems and worship resources, we are led through a week of prayer for Prisons Week.

“Prisons Week has prepared prayer literature to enable the Christian community, through individuals and churches, to pray for the needs of all those affected by prisons: prisoners and their families, victims of crime and their communities, those working in the criminal justice system and the many people who are involved in caring for those affected by crime on the inside and outside of our prisons.”

— Prisons Week

“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn;

yet God feeds them.

And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life.

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”

Luke 12:24-26 NIV

(cover photo courtesy of Mark Timberlake at Unsplash)

Shaping our Every Day Prayer – Zoom Conference September 22, 2021

Joint Liturgical Group of Great Britain presents

“Shaping our everyday prayer”

A Zoom Conference for all who pray and lead prayer in Christian Communities

22nd September 2021

2.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m. (Zoom will open at 2:00)

For more info, please visit HERE.

Join in at Zoom link HERE

There is no registration fee, but donations will be accepted on the day, for the costs of the day and the on-going work of the Joint Liturgy Group.

Contemplation & Prayer — Fr. David Birchall will lead the Conference in imaginative contemplation and reflective prayer.

Watch and Pray: responding to visual art as a practice of prayer — Revd Peter Gardner will invite us to open our eyes, to look with attentive curiosity and to consider what we would choose to look at when we pray. He will reflect on ways that contemporary visual art practice can enhance our ways of seeing and transform our everyday prayer as individuals and worshipping communities.

About our presenters:

Fr. David Birchall joined the Jesuits in 1976 and was ordained in 1985. For nine years he was the Director of St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality centre. He is currently Director of the Ignatian Spiritual centre in Glasgow.

Rev Peter Gardner lives and works in Glasgow. Visual artist and Church of Scotland minister, Peter studied at the University of St Andrews, Edinburgh University and Leith School of Art. Ordained in 1988, Peter has served in rural and city centre Parishes and currently is the Church’s pioneer minister among the visual arts communities of Glasgow. Together with his wife Heidi, they form visual artist duo Gardner & Gardner. Their art practice focuses on temporary, site-specific installations and interventions, often set within the context of worshipping communities and their buildings, introducing a conceptual element into the sacred architecture and drawing attention to the sacred found in contemporary culture.

You are invited to a time of prayer for prison chaplains across the world on 25th August

Every year on August 25, the International Prison Chaplains’ Association (IPCA) invites chaplains and those with an interest in prison ministry to join together in a special day of prayer for prisons.

You can download our simple prayer guide from the website or from the attachments here. Our very own Revd Bob Wilson serves on the IPCA Europe Committee and is Vice Chair of the Committee in Europe. His colleague, David Buick

who serves as IPCA Worldwide President, send us all a message of encouragement and invitation:

“Preparation of this year’s day of prayer has been made especially difficult by the pandemic and the resulting pressures on chaplains everywhere. At the same time, that is all the more reason for us to pray for each other, for our ministries, and for the prisons in which we serve. The health crisis and related restrictions also mean that chaplains are even more isolated than usual. In view of this, we’ve decided to give you an opportunity to join together online for a short prayer service on Zoom following the prayer outline published here. This will be on Wednesday, August 25 at 17.30 BST.

Not many may be able to join in view of world time differences and the short notice, but we’ll be going ahead no matter how many or how few of us there are. If you wish to attend, please register at this link. We’ll send you a link to the Zoom meeting shortly before the event. Every Blessing, David Buick, IPCA Worldwide President.”

Register here for the prayer event taking place 25th Aug 5.30.P.M.

(cover photo courtesy of Nega at Unsplash)

Prisons Week from 10th-16th October

Join us, for a week of prayer and care, during the month of October, with the support of the inspiring and thought-provoking resources which have been written especially for this time.

Supported by all the major church denominations and the leading Christian organisations in the sector, including the Free Churches Group, Prisons Week has prepared prayer literature for sharing in our churches and communities. For forty years now, Prisons Week has prepared materials to enable the Christian community, through individuals and churches, to pray for the needs of all those affected by prisons: prisoners and their families, victims of crime and their communities, those working in the criminal justice system and the many people who are involved in caring for those affected by crime on the inside and outside of our prisons.

“Prisons Week raises awareness and generates prayer. It motivates volunteers to step forward and give their time and gifts, in prisons and in their own communities. It provides an annual focus and reason for Christians to work together, building capacity and motivation to make a difference for people who are out of sight and often out of mind.”

— Prisons Week

(cover photo courtesy of Tim Hüfner at Unsplash)