NEWS
Investing Together - Online Launch, 23rd March 26, 1 pm
Having spent a year consulting and co-creating this charter, we are excited to invite you to the online launch of this initiative…
Monday 23rd March, 1 pm on Zoom
Please join us, and spread the word to invite any individuals, churches, partner orgs etc…everyone who is passionate about sharing the Gospel with children and youth is very welcome to join us! We are calling the UK church to invest together in the faith of children and young people, informed by research and equipped and empowered by all of the resources, tools and training collectively pooled by CYP organisations. We can reach more children and young people when we invest together.
From Gemma Madle & Hannah Bowden (Youthscape), Sarah Lane-Cawte (Free Churches Group) and Sarah Holmes (CYM)
CoNNECT II, Exploring Story: Chaplaincy - Reflection - Research
Exploring Story: Chaplaincy - Reflection - Research,
with input from Andrew Todd
Lumen United Reformed Church & Community Centre, URC London
Thursday, Mar 12 from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm
An opportunity to connect and network, with a particular focus around the use of case studies.
As with the first CoNNECT day, we are looking to bring together practitioners, educators, researchers, and those involved in supporting, developing, and providing chaplaincy and pastoral care across different contexts. The day is aimed at all those who are interested in understanding chaplaincy, developing practice across different contexts, and supporting chaplains through participatory research.
Chaplaincy is at heart relational. The day will share details of a Case Study project from the Netherlands and the idea of ‘living human encounters’ which emerged from it. As a way of connecting our stories, there will be an opportunity to share and reflect on pastoral encounters, offering a taste of case study research.
The final part of the day will be an optional session for those who would be interested in forming a steering group to develop ideas for a Case Study project and a potential pilot research community within that.
Alongside Sarah Lane Cawte, Mark Newitt and Bob Wilson, we are delighted that Andrew Todd will help us facilitate the day. Andrew is Director of the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology and Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and the Cambridge Theological Federation. Andrew brings a wealth of experience, having previously coordinated the Centre for Contemporary Spirituality at Sarum College and, prior to that, he set up and ran the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies. Andrew is a practical theologian and ethnographer who has researched and published on chaplaincy and related issues in religion and public life.
Season’s Greetings to all members of the Free Churches Group
As we stand in the precious gap between 2025 and 2026, the story at the centre of this season still speaks with amazing clarity. The nativity is far more than a tender scene—its truth is bold, unsettling, and filled with promise. A child is born into a world shaped by imperial power, social strain, and communities struggling under the pressure of political decisions made far above them. Yet through this child, God’s presence breaks into ordinary life with a courage that cannot be silenced.
This year has carried its own troubles and joys. Across the nations, households have endured financial uncertainty, stretched public services, political volatility, and widening fault lines in our common life. Too many live with the unspoken ache of isolation, exhaustion, or grief. Many communities feel unseen. And yet, in the midst of this, signs of grace continue to rise: communities supporting one another, churches standing with those pushed aside, people choosing compassion even when the world encourages impatience and fear.
The Christmas story meets us here as witness and as revelation.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it” (John 1:5).
This is the heartbeat of the incarnation: that God steps into places where people struggle to breathe freely, and affirms their dignity without condition. God’s presence arrives in vulnerability, aligning with those who know what it is to be overlooked or pushed to the margins.
The family at the centre of the Christmas story journeys under imperial decree, their later flight from danger, and their resilience in the face of injustice mirror the world we inhabit. Families today move across borders seeking safety; communities navigate pressures created by systems that count numbers and neglect lives; people hold hope through journeys they did not choose. Christmas reveals that God is already there—in the displacement, in the uncertainty, in the fragile courage that keeps families moving toward life.
As the Free Churches, our vocation is rooted in this truth. We are called to shape communities where justice is lived, not merely spoken; where compassion is genuine; where the voices of those most affected by the decisions of the powerful are not nudged to the edges but brought to the centre. Our witness must speak to the world as it is, while insisting on the world that can be.
The year ahead will bring its share of demands. Yet it also carries possibility—new alliances for justice, fresh commitments to healing, deeper solidarity with the vulnerable, and renewed courage to speak truth in public life. May we enter the coming year with hearts attuned to God’s movement: steady, compassionate, and bold.
My prayer for us all is that we step into the future with clarity of purpose; that we continue to lift the voices of those long unheard; that our churches become places where hope takes root in real and tangible ways; and that the light that rises in the Christmas story shines through our common life with strength and grace.
May peace, courage, and God’s liberating love accompany you into the year ahead.
Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson
Moderator of the Free Churches Group