Adolescence: a free webinar for churches, 16th Sept 2025, 16:30 - 18:00

An opportunity to explore and respond to the urgent issues exposed by the Netflix drama, Adolescence, and their implications for churches.

Adolescence: a free webinar for churches, 16th September 2025, 16:30 - 18:00

join us for an insightful webinar for churches centred on understanding and responding to the urgent issues exposed by Netflix’s critically acclaimed series Adolescence.

This four-episode, single-take British drama follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller, accused of murdering a classmate, and probes the devastating impact of toxic masculinity, online radicalisation, cyberbullying, peer pressure, knife crime, and the digital pressures facing boys today. Co-created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the series is praised for its emotional realism and raw performances and serves as a powerful conversation starter about youth vulnerability, responsibility, and healing within our communities.

In this webinar for church leaders, parents, and youth workers, we will explore implications for engaging with young people in a rapidly changing digital world.

You can register your place here.  

For more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Sarah Lane Cawte at sarah.lane.cawte@freechurches.org.uk

This event flyer is available to download here.

Getting to know: Rev Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson

Churches Together in England welcomes Rev Dr Tessa, Free Churches Group CTE President for 2025 to 2028.

As her term of office begins, Rev Dr Tessa (TH-R) spoke to CTE’s Senior Communications Manager, Sarah Ball (SB)

SB: Welcome to the CTE Presidency Rev Dr Tessa. How did your ecumenical journey begin?

TH-R: My ecumenical journey began long before I understood the word. As a child in Trinidad and Tobago, I lived the beauty and complexity of the Christian tradition through my family. My father was born in Tobago and raised in the Methodist tradition. My mother was born in Trinidad and raised in a Roman Catholic and Pentecostal household. I was baptised in the Methodist Church, educated in Roman Catholic and Anglican schools, and worshipped in Pentecostal settings during holidays with my maternal grandparents.

From early on, I encountered difference as a gift. That beginning shaped my lens, and helped me to see the rich variety within the body of Christ as something to honour, not to fear. My journey continues to unfold as one committed to the hard work of shared mission, mutual respect, and spiritual integrity across denominational lines.

SB: What was your first ecumenical experience? How formative was this?

TH-R: My earliest (formal) ecumenical experience came in the early 2000s while I was a member of Christ Church Bellingham. I was part of a small team tasked with building relationships across five local churches. That experience was not only informative. It was deeply formative. It taught me that unity across Christian traditions is not just an abstract hope. It is a relational task that demands presence, humility, and trust.

As I worshipped, dialogued, and shared life with colleagues from a range of denominational backgrounds, I began to sense the Spirit moving in ways I had not seen before. I witnessed how God works through different liturgies, languages, and leadership models. Some tensions surfaced, of course. But they were not held as obstacles, they were used as invitations and opportunities to grow deeper in grace. Ecumenical work has never been about erasing difference, it is about honouring difference, engaging it with love, and letting it stretch us toward fuller faithfulness.

Unity, for me, is the hard and holy commitment to keep choosing one another because of our differences, not despite them.

SB: You are a URC Minister, how has being part of that church influenced your thoughts on Christian unity?

TH-R: The United Reformed Church is itself a living sign of ecumenical commitment. Its very formation brought together multiple denominations in pursuit of a more faithful expression of the Church. To be a URC minister is to have been shaped in the context of being reformed and always reforming in a denomination that not only values being reformed and building unity, but was born from “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei”, “The church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God.” My ministerial formation has been rooted in the conviction that Christian unity matters—that we can be deeply faithful to our own traditions while also working generously across them.

The URC has given me space to live this conviction in practice: through shared worship, collaborative ministry, and openness to the Spirit speaking through other voices and traditions. I have been formed by a community that has moved from just talking about being a multicultural church with an intercultural habit, and becoming anti-racist, to being in the process of seeking, diligently, to embody these principles. This experience has instilled in me a deep hope that visible unity in the Body of Christ is not only possible, but essential to our witness in the world today. 

Nourishing Roots with Catherine Todd – ‘Silence Inside’

A day of reflection, restoration and retreat for chaplains with Catherine Todd – ‘Silence Inside’

Date and time: Wed, 19 Nov 2025 10:00 - 16:00 GMT

Location: The Garden Room, Quaker Meeting House, John Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1SJ

Please join us on Wednesday, 19th November at the Quaker Meeting House, John Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1SJ.

Nourishing Roots retreat days, held three times a year, are an opportunity for chaplains in healthcare, prisons, education and beyond to retreat, reflect and recharge spiritually and emotionally from their challenging ministry contexts.

Catherine Todd will lead the day. She has worked in prison chaplaincy since 2007 in various prisons and now works nationally, supporting chaplaincy in the Youth Custody estate. Previously, she has worked in parish ministry, midwifery and nursing. She has also trained as a psychotherapist. Her particular interest is in experiential spirituality, of meeting the holy in the moment, wherever and whatever that moment is like. Silence is a good medium for this, and the day will very much be based in silence, with attentive, deep listening practices.

Tickets cost £15 for FCG Chaplains or £25 for non-FCG Chaplains. Please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk for FCG Chaplains ticket. note that refunds can be issued up to 7 days beforehand, but for catering reasons not beyond that date.

Register your place HERE.

Image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay

Statement on the Election of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV, we, the Free Churches Group in England and Wales, extend warm congratulations to you on your election.

We welcome the spirit of your first address, in which you called for “building bridges”, reminded us that “we are all in the hands of God” and urged us to advance together.

These words resonate powerfully with our shared calling to unity, compassion, and faithful witness in a divided world.

Our prayers are with you Pope Leo XIV, as you begin this important global ministry. We look forward to continuing dialogue and cooperation as pilgrims together in Christ’s mission of peace, justice, and reconciliation.

May God bless and guide you in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson
Moderator of the Free Churches Group

A Statement from the Moderator of the Free Churches Group on the Passing of Pope Francis

Today the Free Churches Group join many around the world in expressing condolences to the global Catholic community, and in recognising the life and work of Pope Francis, who carried out his duties as one whose witness was rooted in love and the boundless mercy of God.

 He was a pioneer of conscience, courage, and conviction—one who refused to look away from suffering. He turned toward the wounded people and places of the world as a Gospel imperative, reminding us that God’s presence is not found in the triumphs of power but in the cries of the poor.

 He was a listening Pope - a leader who will be remembered.

 For a life poured out in service, we give thanks.

 May he rest in peace.

Photo by Annie Chen from Pexels,com