A Loyal Address from the Free Churches

The Free Churches Group was pleased to lead a delegation to Buckingham Palace to give a Loyal Address to King Charles on the occasion of His Majesty's Accession.

The ceremony for the presentation of Loyal Addresses by Privileged Bodies took place on Thursday, 9th March, 2023 and was followed by a reception.

A Loyal Address from the Free Churches, including

THE FREE CHURCHES GROUP, including representatives of the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches

THE GENERAL BODY OF PROTESTANT DISSENTING MINISTERS OF THE THREE DENOMINATIONS, Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist

THE BODY OF PROTESTANT DISSENTING MINISTERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN (UNITARIAN) DENOMINATION

THE PROTESTANT DISSENTING DEPUTIES representing lay people of the Three Denominations

TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY

May it please Your Majesty

As representatives of the Free Churches, including the bodies of Protestant Dissenters enjoying the ancient and highly valued privilege of personal access to the Sovereign, we offer Your Majesty our loyal congratulations on Your Accession to the Throne.

At this time of complex change and crises, the need for spiritual support and loving communities has not been greater, and we thank God that we have a Christian monarch committed to serving this nation and the whole Commonwealth. These years of pandemic have been challenging, but we are grateful to God that our congregations have been enabled by the Holy Spirit to continue worshipping in new ways and serving their communities.

Ours are mostly gathered churches, experiencing friendship and care among ourselves, but at the same time seeking to be good neighbours in the way that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us by word and example – striving to share His love in our rich and increasingly diverse society. This concern for others has been demonstrated by an active involvement in education since the 17th Century, prison and hospital ministry since the 18th Century, and whilst some Free Church denominations have been involved in chaplaincy to the armed forces since the beginning of the 20th century, this opportunity has been recently extended to the full range of Free Churches.

We give thanks for the growing depth of love and understanding that exists between the many different Christian denominations within Your realm, and with communities of other faiths, and none. In all of these we have been grateful for the example both in word and deed that Your Majesty has displayed. The impact of global warming and the ecological crises are currently of concern to so many and we are grateful that this is a concern Your Majesty also shares.

We value the liberty we enjoy to worship according to our consciences and the freedom to proclaim the Gospel. We share with others a vigilant concern for the tolerance, freedom and mutual care we have enjoyed in Great Britain, represented by the privilege of address granted now through fourteen reigns, appreciating differences and valuing diversity.

May the celebration of Your Majesty’s Accession be a profound example of this United Kingdom coming together in celebration and an opportunity for many to demonstrate to Your Majesty their appreciation for Your service.

May the blessing of Almighty God continue to rest upon His Majesty the King.

This Loyal Address from the Free Churches is available to download HERE.

The Loyal Address - Verbal Address by Rev Helen Cameron, the Moderator of the Free Churches Group is available to download HERE.

Baptist Chaplains Day

Book your place on our online day for Baptist chaplains
Monday 17 April 2023

I am really looking forward to our chaplains' day on Monday 17 April and I hope to 'meet' many of you online that day!

You can now register. As last year, there will be three standalone sessions, each one on Zoom and lasting approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. They will start at 10am, 2pm and 7pm. You are welcome to register for one, two, or all three sessions. 

(If this button doesn't work, please copy and paste this link into your browser:  https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/622117/A_Day_for.aspx)

Those who have registered will be sent joining details and Zoom links in the week before the event. 

Please do pass on the details or forward this email to anyone you know in your network who may be interested. The day is free and is for anyone within Baptists Together who acts as a chaplain in any capacity, regardless of accreditation status, hours spent each week in chaplaincy, or sector (or who maybe thinking about becoming a chaplain.) 

Our keynote speaker is Revd Dr Mark Newitt, the Free Churches Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy and part of the chaplaincy team at both a hospital and a hospice in Sheffield. Mark's theme is Ritual and Liturgy in Everyday Encounters. Mark will help us define what ritual and liturgy is and isn't, and then explore how formal and informal ritual and liturgy provides one way of responding to pastoral, spiritual and religious need. 

The day will be structured as follows:

• 1000-1145 Session 1. Some reflective worship led by the Eastern Baptist Association regional team; a video-story from a chaplain; an interview with Diane Watts, BUGB Faith and Society Team Leader; and then a chance to meet, encourage and pray for other chaplains from your own sector in breakout rooms.

• 1400-1545 Session 2. Worship led once more by the EBA regional team; a second video-story from a chaplain, and then Mark's keynote address on Ritual and Liturgy in Everyday Encounters.

• 1900-2045 Session 3. One final act of worship and one final video-story; followed by a panel and breakout rooms to delve more deeply into the subject opened up for us by Mark Newitt in the afternoon.     

I do hope you will be able to join us. However, if you are no longer involved in chaplaincy and would like to stop receiving communication from the Ministries Team about chaplaincy, please let me know by emailing ministries@baptist.org.uk 

On behalf of the Baptists Together Chaplaincy Forum,

Grace and peace,


Tim Fergusson
Ministries Team Co-leader
tfergusson@baptist.org.uk

Hello, I'm

Hello, I am Sarah Crane and I am Chair of the Steering group for Healthcare Chaplaincy. I am also the Head of Chaplaincy at Milton Keynes University hospital and have been part of the chaplaincy team here since 2014.

I sometimes find it hard to explain to people what exactly I do; today for example I’ve attended the morning safety huddle (where the site and each ward leader as well as others report on how they are and what’s going on) and a multi-disciplinary team meeting (MDT) where multiple professionals providing palliative care across Milton Keynes meet to discuss their shared patient load. I’ve sorted one funeral and taken another one. I’ve spent time with a student on a placement with our team reflecting on my experience of the process of death, having spent time with our bereavement team. I’ve spoken to members of staff, I’ve visited patients in different situations, I’ve prepped some training for new volunteers, supported a family to have a short memorial at the time of a loved one’s funeral service and, most impressively for me, I’ve managed to approve an invoice for payment for supervision for one of our team.

A big part of the reason I have been here for that long is that I absolutely love it. I love the place, the work, the people, and the variety of every day. I enjoy the pace, the juggle of prioritising and re-prioritising, and then the space sitting with another person trying to bring a sense of calm and attentiveness to whatever is causing them trouble. I love the stories: of travel and adventures, of love and friendship, of tenderness and silliness, and of difference and similarity. I love working with staff from so many diverse disciplines, understanding new things and being able to be a vocal supporter of sustainable working which enables the flourishing of our organisation and the people who make it.

Beyond my own organisation I am passionate about the developing role of chaplaincy as a profession across the health sector. We are seeing the voice of chaplains, and the understanding of chaplaincy as necessary expertise and support in pastoral, spiritual and religious care, growing in value across the health sector, driven by the work of excellent chaplains working across the length and breadth of the country. After nearly a decade in healthcare chaplaincy I can’t wait to see where the next decade takes us all!

Seeing and being seen

I am married to a Scot so we celebrated Burns Night on January 25th, despite being in exile in England. My husband recites the Address to the Haggis written by the poet Robert Burns and at the end of the recitation stabs the haggis with a flourish, as is the tradition. He uses a sgian dubh (a small ceremonial knife) to do this which belonged to his father, and which his father wore to work every day, tucked into the long socks he wore under his kilt.

Why on earth am I telling you about this?

Because recently after taking part in an ecumenical service, a very different poem written by Robert Burns came to mind. Burns’ poem about an insect sprang unbidden into my mind while I was reflecting on taking part in Ecumenical Vespers in honour of the late Pope Benedict at Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral, at the kind invitation of my brother President of Churches Together in England, Cardinal Vincent Nicholls.

Burns’ poem about the tiny insect he spies crawling on a woman’s hat is written in the Habbie dialect and form, and sees Robert Burns musing that the insect does not observe class distinctions and regards all human beings equally, as potential hosts, and so lands on us all. Burns concludes his poem with these words,

‘O wad some Power the giftie gie us / To see oursels as ithers see us!’

English translation: help us see ourselves as others see us!

I think these lines sprang up in my memory because the kind and generous invitation to the Moderator of the Free Churches Group (currently an ordained woman) by the Cardinal was an invitation to me to cross over a threshold into the shared grief and memories of those present who belonged to a form of the Christian tradition which was not my own. I was invited to share in the memories of those who had loved and respected Pope Benedict for his intellect, his rigour, his deep theological exploration of Jesus of Nazareth, his generous engagement with others, his prayer, and his long ministry and service of Roman Catholicism. For a moment during the service of evening prayer, with the Psalms sung in English rather than the traditional Latin, I was able to enter a space with other Christian brothers and sisters and see them differently.

The Service of Evening Prayer was beautiful. The Motet by Henry Purcell was sung by the choristers,

Now, now that the sun hath veil’d his light

And bid the world goodnight;

To the soft bed my body I dispose,

But where shall my soul repose?

Dear, dear God, even in thy arms,

Then to thy rest, O my soul!

And singing, praise the mercy

That prolongs thy days.

Hallelujah!

The sermon was given by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, apparently without notes. The generous ecumenical welcome enabled us all to participate and to worship profoundly. The music of hymns and responses sung by the choir was beautiful. The closing hymn was “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” (written by Charles Wesley, Anglican priest and poet, and the cofounder of the Methodist movement with his brother John). Cardinal Vincent told me he had chosen this hymn because it was sung at the funeral of Pope Benedict and he had found himself following the Pope’s coffin as this was sung, moved to tears at the lines, “Changed from glory, into glory”.

You might still be asking why is she telling us this and where do those lines of Robert Burns fit into this reflection?

After the service concluded there was a reception to which all guests were invited, and Cardinal Vincent (again without notes) spoke of his greatest and deepest memories of Pope Benedict during his visit to the UK. At this moment he chose to remember Pope Benedict speaking and telling stories about Jesus with a group of children who listened intently and carefully. Cardinal Vincent chose not, at that moment, to remember a man described as God’s rottweiler, a theological conservative or traditionalist, author of 60 books, a reflective theologian Pope, but rather someone who kept a group of children enthralled and in doing so was fully present to them in that moment.

I continue to reflect on how we see ourselves and how others see us. We can delude ourselves about who we are, how we interact with others, how we behave, how we present ourselves. Others may misread us, not grasp the whole of ourselves and focus on a tiny part of who we are and what we do. We may, in our memories be partial and incomplete.

It is only in our relationship with God that we are fully known, attended to and seen in all our incompleteness and frailty, and in that relationship to be “changed from glory, into glory”, redeemed and transformed to be the person God created us to be. In Psalm 139 we celebrate that it was God who made us and that there is nothing in us which God does not see,

“Your eyes see all my days”.

Whatever our character, and whatever we are and do, at the last and at the end of our days we stand before our Maker and cast before God “our crowns”, lost in the wonder, the love and praise of God. We are all creatures of a Creator God who creates and re-creates us, and all the world.

Every blessing

Revd Helen Cameron

Moderator of the Free Churches Group

MEETING AGAIN - THE DISSENTING DEPUTIES 2023 at Free Church House 16th May, 6pm

This is a warm invitation to members of your church to join us here at Tavistock Square on 16th May 2023 at 6pm, when our distinguished speaker will be Sir Les Ebdon CBE, Chairman of the Governors of Spurgeon’s College and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and former Director of Fair Access to Higher Education.

He will speak on “The Importance of being a Free Church today”, exploring the relevance of the principles our forebears held dear, especially the freedoms they fought to obtain and their continuing importance. It should be an evening of exceptional interest.

The “Dissenting Deputies” were established as elected lay people, working with the body of Ministers, in 1732 to fight for the removal of restrictions which excluded the churches and people we now call in the “Free Church” tradition from many areas of public life. We maintain this annual society to honour their work. Free speech can never be taken for granted. The body also keeps alive our historic right of direct approach to the Monarch. Today, the Free Churches Group carries out the Deputies’ functions relating to government, as we will hear during our very brief formal proceedings.

It would be really helpful to know, in advance, something of the numbers attending. Please return the attached form by post or email. Respecting our historical structure, it would be appropriate formally to nominate two “Deputies”, but all are welcome. Please display the poster. Our income is limited, and a contribution would be very welcome to help cover our meeting costs.

We know that Sir Les will give us a stimulating evening. Do come.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Rochester Keith Salway

An invitation letter is available to download here.

A poster is available to download here.

The Dissenter form is available to download here.