The Chaplaincy Chain Podcast Launch

The Chaplaincy Chain Podcast is a collaborative project hosted by the Free Churches Group and supported by The Methodist Church. The podcast aims to open up conversations about the joys and challenges of chaplaincy by exploring its depths and breadths. Working with partners in a variety of contexts, we hope to bring a range of perspectives and experiences into the conversation.

During each episode we’ll notice what emerges in the conversation and use this to decide the next link, continuing The Chaplaincy Chain Podcast!

Celebrating the 350th Anniversary of Isaac Watts

Saturday 20 July 10.00-5.00 pm

Chinley Independent Chapel, The Wash Road, Chapel Milton,

Chinley, High Peak, SK23 0QN

The Congregation Federation is hosting a celebration of Watts' Anniversary at Chinley Chapel on Saturday 20 July. This free day will include talks, workshops, hymn-singing, children's activities, and lunch, with guest presenters including the Revd Dr Graham Adams and Revd Dr Janet Wooton. Further details to follow: to register, please email the Revd Peter Sharp at revpetersharp@gmail.com

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A Celebration of Isaac Watts, including an act of Thanksgiving

Saturday 21 September at 2.30 pm, with gathering music from 2.00 pm.

Melton Mowbray URC, Chapel Street Melton Mowbray Leicestershire LE13 1LZ

Acknowledged as the Father of English Hymnody, Congregational minister Isaac Watts is the author of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Joy to the World," and many other cornerstones of our hymnbooks. He taught briefly in Freeby, Leicestershire, and is associated with Freeby Chapel, which has now merged into Melton Mowbray URC. The year 2024 is the 350th anniversary of Watts' birth, and in celebration, we look forward to welcoming the Rev. Dr. Robert Pope of Westminster College to talk about Watts, his God, and his legacy in the present day. The event will include opportunities to sing and listen to some of Watts' best-loved hymns and will be followed by refreshments, including, of course, Melton Mowbray pork pies.

You are invited to save the date and watch for further details. Information about how to book will be available here soon. 

Nourishing Roots - with Nicola Slee, 2nd July 2024 at Queen's Foundation, Birmingham

Photo by Dawn McDonald on Unsplash

A day of reflection and retreat for chaplains with Nicola Slee at Queen's Foundation, 18 Somerset Road Birmingham B15 2QH on 2nd July 2024, 10:00-16:00

Please join us on Thursday 2nd July in Birmingham for a day of reflection, retreat and recharging at the Queen's Foundation. Our day will be led by Prof. Nicola Slee. A two-course meal and refreshments for the full day will be provided.

Professor Nicola Slee is Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, and Professor of Feminist Practical Theology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has wide ranging interests in theology, spirituality, poetry and literature, and is a regular speaker at conferences and leader of retreats. Her most recent publications are Fragments for Fractured Times: What Feminist Practical Theology Brings to the Table (SCM, 2020) and Abba Amma: Improvisations on the Lord’s Prayer (Canterbury Press, 2022).’

Cost: £10 for FCG chaplains and £20 for all others (including lunch and refreshments).

For more information and a discount code for Free Church Chaplains, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

Are our children ready for school?

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash

A recently-published survey of 1000 parents and teachers by charity Kindred2 has found that 50% of teachers say children are less ready for school than they were a year ago.

1 in 4 children, the survey found, were not toilet-trained and 50% of the parents surveyed did not think it was their sole responsibility to toilet train their child.

Other issues identified were that nearly half of children entering reception classes in September 2023 were not able to sit still, and a quarter did not have basic language skills.

Many parents had had little contact with health visitors and reported that they did not fully understand what was needed for their child to be ready for school.

What can we do?

Many of our churches run thriving parent/carer and toddler groups, and others host pre-schools, so we are already doing a lot. Obviously much of this provision was unable to operate during the Pandemic, and children who are currently in Reception classes or about to enter school may have missed early opportunities for socialisation.

These groups can provide valuable sources of support for parents and carers of young children, particularly if they are supported by the church and wider community, where there is contact with people of different ages.

You might also consider hosting or running a parenting course.

Action for Children offers support for parents, including courses run through Children’s Centres, or accessed online or through text messages, and an online advice service called Parent Talk, where information is available and access to a parenting coach can be provided free of charge.

A Prayer For Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: The Fragility of Freedom

The 27th of January is the day for everyone to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the millions of people killed under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. The 27th of January marks the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

This year, the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is the 'fragility of freedom'.

We have developed the following prayer to reflect this theme, and we encourage Christians especially to mark HMD with these words:

A Prayer For Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: The Fragility of Freedom

Eternal God, we come before you, conscious of the fragility of freedom, to remember the victims of the Holocaust.

We lament the loss of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution, and victims of all genocides.

Remembering the past, help us today to use what freedom we have to stand up for those whose freedom is denied.

We pray for a day when all shall be free to live in peace, unity and love.

Amen.

For a Welsh language version of this prayer, please see below.

Gweddi ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost 2024: Bregusrwydd Rhyddid

27 Ionawr yw’r dydd i bawb gofio am y chwe miliwn o Iddewon a lofruddiwyd yn yr Holocost a’r miliynau o bobl a laddwyd gan ormes y Natsïaid, ynghyd â’r hil-laddiadau a ddigwyddodd wedyn yng Nghambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia a Darfur. Mae 27 Ionawr yn nodi gwaredigaeth Auschwitz Birkenau, gwersyll marwolaeth mwyaf y Natsïaid.

Eleni, y thema ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost yw ‘bregusrwydd rhyddid.’

Mae‘r Cyngor Cristnogion ac Iddewon wedi ysgrifennu’r weddi isod i adlewyrchu’r thema hon ac felly, gan ddilyn yr arweiniad hwn, mae’r Eglwys yng Nghymru yn annog Cristnogion i nodi Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost drwy arfer y geiriau hyn:

Gweddi ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost 2024: ‘Bregusrwydd Rhyddid.’

Dduw tragwyddol, deuwn ger dy fron, yn ymwybodol bod rhyddid yn beth bregus, er mwyn cofio am bawb a ddioddefodd yn yr Holocost.

Galarwn y golled o’r chwe miliwn o Iddewon a laddwyd yn yr Holocost, y miliynau o bobl eraill a ddioddefodd dan ormes y Natsïaid, ynghyd â phawb sydd wedi dioddef yn sgil hil-laddiadau eraill.

Wrth i ni gofio am y gorffennol, cynorthwya ni heddiw i arfer y rhyddid sydd gennym i amddiffyn y rhai y cymerir eu rhyddid oddi arnynt.

Gweddïwn am ddydd pan fydd pawb yn rhydd i fyw mewn tangnefedd, undod a chariad.

Amen.  

For more information, please visit CCJ website HERE.