A Celebration of Chaplaincy, online event, 8th November, 7:30 - 8:30 pm

A Celebration of Chaplaincy with the President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference

Affirming the great small things of chaplaincy through prayer, music and conversation

Register HERE before 31st October to receive your prayer pack for the event.

If you love chaplaincy then come and join us as we celebrate together. We’ll be hearing the stories of chaplains from many different sectors. There will be a chance to catch up with chaplains far and wide before being reaffirmed in this vital ministry and prayed for by the President and Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

The event will be taking place online. If you know of other chaplains local to you why not make this a shared experience by meeting together and joining the session as a group?

We would also like to send you a small gift as part of this event if you sign up before the 31st October and are happy to provide a postal address. You are still welcome to sign up after this date, although there will not be time to post anything to you.

The Methodist Church

Prisons Week 2022: What are you thankful for?

Thank you. Diolch. Tapadh leat. Ta. Cheers.

We say thank you in so many ways in this country. Usually we are responding to a kindness, to an offer of help, to a generosity, to a service given. A big purple bear (going by the name of “Barnie”!) once sang “please and thank you, they are the magic words” to remind children of the importance of gratitude and courtesy. This year Prisons Week is focussing on a Samaritan man, an outsider, who was healed by Jesus and “threw himself on the ground … and thanked Jesus”. We know nothing of the man’s journey until that time, nor do we know much about it afterwards, but we do know that his encounter with Jesus as healer led him to a state of gratitude, of worship. Interestingly, he was not healed on his encounter with Jesus, but on his reaction to him in obedience (“as they went they were healed”, v14), and we also know that he alone, “a foreigner”, returned with this attitude of praise (v17)

Over the last few years in Prisons Week we have journeyed together in prayer through difficult days. We have lamented together, but with the encouragement “you are not alone”, we have struggled together with little but looked to the ravens as a sign of God’s provision, and this year while still journeying we return to say thank you. Not because we are thankful that all is again well, but because it is life-affirming for us to be thankful in all things. The prisons week film crew went out on to the streets of Brighton and experienced thankfulness IN all things by a wide range of people in a wide range of circumstances … thankfulness for family, for pets, for last chances to talk, for sustenance, for nature, for the wind in my hair, for breath.

In the midst of daily life, to pause … maybe in our pain, maybe in our joy, maybe in our healing, maybe in our ongoing dis-ease, to cry out along with all affected by imprisonment … Thank you … changes us at a soul level. It is never an easy response, but in it we are led to worship, we are led to praise, we are led onwards in the life we are saved to live in all its fullness. Jesus says to the Samaritan … “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.” Not so much “magic words” as wonderful words, words of healing and words of life. Words that I will be praying during prisons week that victims, prisoners, officers, chaplains, children, magistrates, those like me, and those who are not will all find the strength to say. AND BE MADE WELL!

Thank you.

Revd Bob Wilson

Secretary for the Prisons Chaplaincy

Prison Fellowship Devotional October 2022

Note: You can download this year’s prayer leaflet and poster on www.prisonsweek.org . This year there is also the possibility to make your own “Thank You” Prisons Week poster that you can add to all year long!

A bit of Chaplaincy on the Side, a webinar exploring part-time chaplaincy

Monday 5th December from 18:30 to 20:00

Tickets are free and available from Eventbrite here.

Part-time chaplaincy roles come in many shapes and sizes. They may be:

• inherited as part of a church posting

• be carried out as a distinct role separate from church ministry

• a role held alongside secular employment

Whether you are working part-time as a chaplain, would be interested in doing so, or know someone who should consider doing so(!) this webinar will explore how a part-time chaplaincy role can complement, inspire and inform other roles and areas of work and look at some of the pathways to becoming a chaplain.

With input from

• The Revd Canon Helen Cameron: Chair of the Methodist Northampton District and Moderator of the Free Church Group

• Gary Hopkins: Methodist Ministry Development Officer for Chaplaincy

• Suzanne Nockels: Congregational Church Minister and Chaplain at Sheffield Children’s Hospital

• Tas Cooper, Quaker Chaplain at Oxford University and a freelance Spanish to English translator

• Bob Wilson: Secretary for Prison Chaplaincy and Free Churches Faith Advisor and chaplain at HMP Wayland

• Mark Newitt: Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy and part of the chaplaincy teams at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and St Luke’s Hospice

The event flyer is available to download here.

Image by Gundula Vogel from Pixabay

Prisons Week, 2022 Campaign – 9th-15th Oct, what are you thankful for?

For nearly 50 years, Prisons Week has encouraged Christians to pray for all those affected by crime and imprisonment. The Samaritan leper in Luke 17, inspires us all to seek what he was amazed to find when returning to thank Jesus for his healing … a new beginning.

Our recent campaigns have moved us, like him, from loneliness and despair to hope. And now, like him, we also return with gratitude. So, what are you thankful for?

Conceived, directed and produced by Spread Creative.

Please download the Prisons week prayer leaflet Here.

Record demand for blood donations to help sickle cell patients prompts urgent call for donors of Black heritage

We’re proud to be supporting Black History Month this October. We would love your help promoting our #InOurBlood campaign, as we continue to increase the number of people of Black heritage donating blood. For many people with Sickle cell, ethnically matched blood often provides the best treatment, and this year we need 16,600 Black Caribbean or Black African donors to help save or improve lives.

It's #InOurBlood to help people living with sickle cell. Strength can be found in communities coming together - just like a family. That's why Black communities have the unifying power to treat sickle cell and help friends and neighbours who are battling this disease. During Black History Month, we are urging people of Black heritage to donate blood.

Sickle cell is a serious, lifelong and life-threatening blood disorder that mainly affects people of Black African and Black Caribbean ethnicity. New figures from NHS Blood and Transplant reveal that a record 250 donations are now needed every day to treat people with sickle cell, many of whom who need regular blood transfusions every four to six weeks.

This figure shows a huge increase in demand - only 150 donations a day were needed five years ago.

And hospital demand is likely to rise even further, by 14% over the next five years.

Blood donations save lives.

Sickle cell is the fastest growing genetic disorder/condition in the UK. Sickle cell symptoms include anaemia, strokes, blindness, bone damage, and over time can experience damage to organs, such as liver, kidney, lungs, heart and spleen. Ethnically matched blood provides the best treatment - without it people with sickle cell are at risk of strokes, organ failure or even death. This year 16,600 Black Caribbean or Black African donors are urgently needed to give patients the life enhancing and life saving treatments they need. The power to treat sickle cell is #InOurBlood.

How you can help

Child laughing with graphic containing messaging 'Not family, but blood' and It's #InOurBlood to treat sickle cell. Book today at blood.co.uk

You can help us save lives by sharing our campaign messaging and assets to your followers.

#InOurBlood suggested social media posts:

The power to help treat sickle cell is #InOurBlood. Blood donors of Black heritage are urgently needed. Help save up to 3 lives in one hour. Book now at blood.co.uk

Not family, but blood

It’s #InOurBlood to treat sickle cell.

Just 60 minutes can save up to 3 lives. Book now at blood.co.uk

Accompanying #InOurBlood assets:

Please accompany your posts with campaign assets from our promoting donation hub.

Please support us by sharing this campaign toolkit with your family and friends - https://sway.office.com/3JE8EAMXG1vfku9D?ref=Link

NHS Blood and Transplant

 Twitter @NHSBT  

Visit  nhsbt.nhs.uk