NEWS
Working in a primary school or leading children's groups at your church?
Barnabas in Schools has produced a wide range of engaging and thought- provoking materials for Lent, Holy Week and Easter.
Barnabas in Schools is a professional education service provider to primary schools and works throughout England and Wales. They offer quality creative arts-based Barnabas RE Days for pupils and specialist INSET sessions for teachers. They also provide free ideas for collective worship, RE and classroom reflection, as well as books and resources. Their overall aim is to enable schools to explore Christianity creatively and confidently.
Check out their Lent and Easter resources HERE.
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The Barnabas in Schools Prayer Jesus, you chose a child as a model for adult maturity and of God’s presence among us. Thank you for our schools with their teachers and children. Together may they create: safe places for lives to flourish; happy places for wonder and discovery; hopeful places of peace and healing; stimulating places of learning and laughter; places where everyone feels valued and respected; places that offer security and stability to all; places where both old and young can find purpose and direction in life. Amen
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(photo courtesy of Neal E. Johnson at Unsplash)
Free Churches Commission into social cohesion in the UK - our work so far
Social cohesion has been near the top of the political agenda for well over a decade now. FCG set up a research project looking at the relationship between the Church and social cohesion in England. The project is being conducted by Theos, the UK’s leading think tank on religion and society issues.
There will be updates on this work coming up soon and the full report will be published in the autumn. If you haven’t had the opportunity to learn about our work in this field yet, then you can get up to speed and read all about it, by checking out the Commission updates which have been produced since the project began HERE.
We would like to thank Westhill for their support of this commission.
For more information visit their website →
Beginning Chaplaincy...
There is a Beginning Chaplaincy course starting soon at St Padarn’s Institute in Llandaff.
Our Free Churches Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy, Rev Meg Burton, will be teaching on this programme, in early March, alongside colleagues.
What are your recollections of beginning a new course of study? I always feel there’s a sense of trepidation mingled with excitement when we begin a new course - lots of things to learn, new people to get to know, different concepts and ideas to encounter and engage with…
Please join with us as we pray for the tutors, support staff and students on this course, which is running from 7th until 11th March.
We pray for wisdom and understanding for the tutors; we pray for the wider staff at the college as they support this course and for the students, as they begin their studies into this vital area of ministry. May they be upheld in their studies and work; may this course provide a firm foundation from which to serve in the setting in which they minister. Amen
You can find out more about the Free Churches healthcare chaplaincy work here.
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(photo courtesy of David Travis at Unsplash)
JLG Conference - Shaped by Welcome: Generous Worship
On Wednesday 11th March 2020 the Joint Liturgical Group will be holding its fifth annual one day conference. This year we will be looking at how our welcome shapes our worship through the concept of an invitational approach to Church going. The day will be led by Michael Harvey who is a co-founder of Back to Church Sunday. He has developed the concept of invitation as a mission tool across seventeen countries. Michael will address the subject and facilitate discussion on how we invite people to share in communities of faith.
CONFERENCE DETAILS
Venue: St. Aloysius Church Hall, 20 Phoenix Road, Euston, London, NW1 1TA
(Next to Euston Station, very convenient for St Pancras/King’s Cross Stations)
Doors open 10.30 a.m for an 11am start. Finish by 3.30pm
Price £25 (Includes light lunch)
Further Details, please visit the JLG website here.
Booking/Tickets via Eventbrite here.
Note: The Joint Liturgical (jlg.org.uk) exists as a creative working group. It offers materials to churches and ecumenical bodies, organises conferences, and advises and comments on worship matters. Work produced by the group is offered to churches and worship leaders to use as they see fit. Currently about one third of the active the membership of the group is drawn from denominations that are members of the Free Church Group.
A message from the Chair of the RE Council of England and Wales
The RE Council of England and Wales reports,
“It is with a mixture of pleasure and sadness that I announce that our CEO Rudi Eliott Lockhart has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Schools Association (ISA) with effect from the 1st August 2020. My pleasure is for Rudi and his family as this position offers them opportunities the REC could not offer. My sadness is that we are losing a talented and highly committed CEO. He will be greatly missed.”
Rudi took up this post with RE Council in November 2014. He has made a considerable and positive impact in the life and work of the RE Council. He will be greatly missed. We wish him every blessing in his next role and pray for the work of the RE Council going forward, as they chart a way through this new phase.
(photo courtesy of Colin Watts at Unsplash)