National Free Church Prison Chaplains' Training, 7th - 9th May 2024

Photo by Wan San Yip on Unsplash

“Our Reason for Hope”

Venue: Eastwood Hall, Mansfield Road, Eastwood, Nottingham, NG16 3SS

Price: £350

The theme for this year will be “Our Reason for Hope”, and our main speaker will be Rev Dr Joe Boot who runs “The Ezra Institute” .

“Rev. Dr.Joseph Boot (M.A., Ph.D.) is a Christian thinker and cultural apologist, Founder and President of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. He is adjunct instructor for culture and apologetics at Bryan College, Tennessee. He also served as the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel, Toronto, for 14 years.

Now resident home in Great Britain, Joseph has worked in the fields of Christian apologetics, worldview education and church leadership for over twenty-five years on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spoken and guest lectured globally at numerous university events, seminaries, churches, colleges, and conferences. He regularly addresses pastors and Christian leaders as well as academic, medical, legal, and political professionals and has publicly debated leading atheistic thinkers and philosophers in Canada and the United States.”

Registration will start at 11:00.for lunch at 12:30, and the Opening Session at 13:30. The event will finish on the final day at 14:00.Price included the cost of each event is two nights’ accommodation and all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

For more information, please contact Bob Wilson at bob.wilson@freechurches.org.uk

Nourishing Roots - with Rev. Miranda Threlfal-Holmes, 12/03/24, 10:00-16:00

Join us for a day of reflection and spiritual renewal with the Free Churches Group, led by Rev. Miranda Threlfal-Holmes

Date: 12th March 2024, 10:00-16:00

Venue: The Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane Liverpool L1 3BT

Price: £20.00

Join us in Liverpool for a day of reflection and spiritual renewal with the Free Churches Group, led by Rev Miranda Threlfal-Holmes, held at the Liverpool Quaker Meeting House.

Nourishing Roots days are organised for Chaplains in Healthcare, Prisons, Education, and beyond to allow us time to reflect, recharge, and reinspire for our work and ministry.

Miranda is the Archdeacon of Liverpool and Team Rector of the St Luke in the City. She has experience in Higher Education chaplaincy and has published a number of books on chaplaincy, prayer, Christian history, and reading the Bible.

The day will include a buffet lunch.

Please contact Thandar (thandar.tun@freechurches.org.uk) for the discount code if are a chaplain from the FCG denominations. Visit here for the denomination list.

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Prisons Week 2023, Look Up! (8th - 14th October)

Look up!

This year we invite you to remember that the heavens declare the glory of God, and to look up.

Please share the film with your family, friends and church, and, with the leaflet available to download below, join us each day as we pray for all those affected by crime and imprisonment.

Visit HERE for more information and to download the prayer leaflets. 

Climb when ready…

This is the call all rock climbers wait for, and recognise as the signal to say “everything is as safe as it’s going to be for you to start climbing”.

 The decision to set off climbing is now based on a mixture of faith in your ability to meet the challenges ahead, and confidence in your preparations. When I see someone leave prison, as a chaplain I face the same mixture of faith and fear. Instead of “climb when ready”, my parting shot is usually “I never want to see you again in my life!”

I can remember those feelings of faith when I was involved in pastoral ministry too. Having finished my sermon prep, made sure the worship team were briefed, that the welcome team were all sorted, the children’s workers had arrived, final prayers said (usually whilst in the loo!), and … ready. But always with a little fear, and always waiting for that little extra thing God might want to do on any given morning. For me, readiness needs to combine both preparation and faith. Only when I see these two combined can I bear the mixed feelings of the present.

As ministers in chaplaincy, church, pioneering or community settings our preparations are essential. But I have come to realise that we are only really ready when we combine this with faith in the one who will be with us on the next steps of the journey. We can look back and know that God has been at work in us to this point, but it is even more important that today we also realise that he will be with us as we journey forward. Today I need to know that God will help me face my anxieties with faith, trusting that he will speak clearly about the path which he will lead me on.

Having every little thing tied down is really not readiness. I am quite convinced that only when we combine our preparedness with faith are we truly ready. Only when we are in an attitude of listening to Jesus say “try fishing on the other side of the boat” (para John 21) are we really ready.

My prayer today is that daily we will face the opportunities and challenges that will surely come along. Prepared, perhaps a little fearful, but ready.

 We have made things as safe as they can be, to get off the ground we need to be “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6)

Climb when ready! The journey for today awaits 😊

Revd Bob Wilson

Secretary for the Free Church Prison Chaplaincy

This article was originally written for Eastern Baptist Association.

Annual National Free Church Prison Chaplains Training, Fire Service Training College, Moreton in Marsh in the Cotswolds from 23rd - 25th Nov 22

The National Free Churches Chaplains training will be held at the wonderful Fire Service Training College, Moreton in Marsh in the Cotswolds from 23rd through to 25th November. Registration on Day 1 will start at 11 am, with departure after lunch on Friday.

Our theme this year will be “For when I am weak …” from 2 Corinthians 12:10. We all know how this scripture ends, and how the apostle Paul says that he delights in his trials. However, there are times for many of us where we are so very weak that we are unable to experience that which we know to be true.

Image from Youversion

This year, the National Free Churches Chaplains’ Training will be focusing, with the expert help of Dr. John Andrews, international speaker, author, and motivator, the practical support of the HMPPS wellbeing team, and the grace of God we experience in our fellowship with one another, on getting back some of that spiritual resilience in our lives. We will have a fairly full programme for the prison chaplains to engage with over the three days (48 hours) we have together, but for me, it is crucially important that you find the time in the training to recharge spiritually in a way that is appropriate to each individual. This event is for all who are endorsed and serving as prison chaplains from Free Churches traditions, whether paid or unpaid, sessional or contracted.

This event will count as 17 hours of Spiritual Development CPD. Spiritual Development CPD is an endorsement requirement for all Free Churches Chaplains.

It is now 5 years since our last National Free Churches Chaplains event. This one is shaping up to be the best yet!

To register, please visit the Eventbrite site here.

Please cascade this information to your regional prison chaplaincy contact as you feel is most appropriate.

Revd Bob Wilson

Secretary for Prisons Chaplaincy