Peace...

Today is International Day of Peace… we pray for peace in our homes and families, throughout our nation and across the world… May we be channels of peace, in the name of Jesus; sustained by God’s grace and upheld through God’s mercy.

We are invited too by our friends in Prison Fellowship to pray for peace…

Loving God, we pray for peace in our prisons.

May God use us as peacemakers, bringing reconciliation in times of conflict.

God, in your mercy, hear our prayers, in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace. Amen

“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”

— Matthew 5:9 NIV

(cover photo courtesy of Wesley Eland at Unsplash)

The Faith New Deal Pilot Fund

The Faith New Deal Pilot Fund is a new, competitive grant programme to help support faith-based organisations to use their resources effectively within their community and to build trust between national government, local government and faith groups.

The Faith New Deal Pilot will provide funding for projects run by faith groups working on community programmes to support a key COVID-19 recovery objective in their local area. Communities, local and national government will benefit from this improved understanding of the faith sector’s capacity to work alongside and with local public services.

Further detail on the fund and guidance on how to apply can be found HERE.

Please send all questions and enquiries to: faithnewdeal@communities.gov.uk.

Connecting Communities, Serving People, The Church & Social Cohesion

Connecting Communities, Serving People, The Church & Social Cohesion will take place on the afternoon of 30th September and be hosted at Liverpool Town Hall.

This event flyer is available to download HERE.

'Leave them certain' is the theme of this year's 'Organ Donation' Week

Leave Them Certain is the theme for this year’s Organ Donation Week.

Organ Donation Week is coming up later this month. This is an awareness raising week from 20th - 26th September. This campaign aims to encourage us to talk to their loved ones about organ donation as families are always involved before organ donation goes ahead, so that when we die, we can leave them certain about our wishes… That conversation could be the most powerful thing you ever do to help save lives!

ORGAN DONATION WEEK

For further information about this year’s campaign and how you, your churches and your families can get involved in the discussions about this vital issue.

This is an issue which matters to all of us and we are glad that a couple of years ago Free Churches Group, working with the Blood Transfusion and Organ donation services, facilitated a one day conference with our member churches and groups. This was a useful event to help us to raise the profile and importance of these services, particularly for our churches who have members from Black, Asian and other ethnic communities. We would like to continue to encourage more blood and organ donors from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to come forward to meet the needs of patients from across our communities. Certain conditions, such as sickle cell and thalassaemia, are more prevalent within these communities.

(cover photo courtesy of Camilo Jimenez at Unsplash)

A month until Prisons Week - Revd Bob Wilson invites us to join together in prayer

There’s a month to go until the start of a week of prayer for Prisons Week.

You are invited by Revd Bob Wilson, Secretary for Prisons Chaplaincy and Free Churches Faith Adviser, to join with churches and groups across the country, for a week of prayer for prisons.

This year the theme is Consider the Ravens, inspired by Jesus’s words in Luke’s Gospel.

You can access the prayers and other thought-provoking resources HERE.

Join us 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.

(cover photo courtesy of I.am_nah at Unsplash)