Support for Free Church Higher Education Chaplains

The Higher Education Working Group has been in discussion with a number of Free Church chaplains in universities and has begun a programme of events to support them. The first of these events was a webinar: “Chaplaincy: ministry on the edge”, exploring the value of chaplaincy in universities.

• Professor Kristin Aune, from the University of Coventry, shared insights from the recent research Chaplains on Campus;

• Sally Bentley, recently-retired Executive Dean from the University of Bedfordshire spoke about the value of chaplaincy to the institution;

• Stephen Heap, Chair of the HE Working Group, explored the churches’ perspective. 48 chaplains registered for the event. A recording is available HERE.

HE chaplains will be invited to virtual “Coffee and chat” sessions on a weekly basis from mid-August. Another webinar is planned for 9 September, exploring how community can be created when you can’t meet in person, led by Lawrence Moore.

(photo courtesy of Naassom Azevedo at Unsplash)

Help is at hand... FURTHER RESOURCES TO HELP YOU IN YOUR MINISTRY

Revd Meg Burton, Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy for the Free Churches, has been gathering and sharing a range of supportive and informative communications with Healthcare Chaplains. Although these are primarily aimed at those working in healthcare chaplaincy, many others may find the content encouraging and helpful in their life and ministry.

There is:

Help is at Hand (support after someone may have died from suicide) - booklet

• Chaplaincy is… (a poignant reflection by a healthcare chaplain) PowerPoint presentation

• Our Story - Reflections from a healthcare chaplaincy team during the pandemic

You can find out more and explore these reflections and materials HERE.

Meg provides the leadership on Healthcare Chaplaincy work at a national level for the Free Churches as well as in a multi-faith context.

(photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema at Unsplash)

Get ready for Education Sunday: A learning people in a time of change

Education Sunday is on 13 September this year.

A range of resources is being developed, including an online service, ideas you can use if you are meeting in church, and outlines for collective worship in schools. They’ll be available shortly on http://www.educationsunday.org.uk/

There are two ways in which you can make a contribution to Education Sunday before September:

• Write a prayer about education, connecting with the theme. Anyone of any age is invited to do this.

• Think about what you have learnt in this time of change. Write it down and send it, ideally with a photo of yourself (stating your permission for us to use it). You might have learnt something about yourself, something about your community, something about God – we’d love to know, and we’ll include these in our online resource.

If you’re sending a prayer or telling us what you’ve learnt, please send them to: sarah.lane.cawte@freechurches.org.uk

(photo courtesy of Joanna Kosinska at Unsplash)

Pioneering work in Religious Education: Anti-racist RE

The Free Churches Group is working with RE Today Services and Methodist Schools to create a free resource for Anti-racist RE.

Lat Blaylock from RE Today Services, the lead developer of the resource, said, 

“I’m really pleased to be working with the Free Churches Group, the Methodist Church and a wide range of teachers of RE from black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities on a resource project for anti-racist RE. It has been really pleasing to gain the interest of many hundreds of schools already in this work. We’ve begun developing resources that will challenge learners in RE lessons to think more carefully about race. We hope to engage with questions of justice, religious perspectives and ways to reduce prejudice and the harms it causes. RE has a very long commitment to enabling learning from diversity, but I do think we are currently needing refreshed approaches to the challenges posed by questions about racial justice.”

The resource will be available for schools from September and will be free to download and use from the Free Churches Group website.

The project follows the success of Reforming Christianity, a resource that the same team developed, and which is available on the Free Churches Group website https://www.freechurches.org.uk/reforming-christianity

Both projects have been funded by the Westhill Endowment, meeting the need to provide more resources in RE that reflect Free Church perspectives.

(image below from RE Today Services, cover photo by Agence Olloweb at Unsplash)

Care in the Classroom...

Spinnaker “support primary schools with assemblies, clubs and RE lessons" and are based in the South East, but their resources and support materials are available for all schools, churches and children’s groups to use and share.

They are very pleased to be able to offer this 'Pastoral Primer' to any and all Teachers and Learning Support Staff. “Caring in the Classroom”.

You can find out more about their work HERE.

Spinnaker - engaging, inspiring, equipping

(image below from Spinnaker, cover photo courtesy of Khadeeja Yasser at Unsplash)