All you wanted to know about schools but were afraid to ask…

Webinar on 14 November, 7- 8.30 p.m.

Things move fast in education and there are always new challenges. If your church wants to build a relationship with your local school, you need to understand what schools are like now and where the opportunities are.

Bev Smith from Youth for Christ, and Sarah Lane Cawte, FCG Education Officer, will talk about schools – how they operate, what they teach, the lives and needs of students, and more – so that you can start to think about ways in which you can support the schools in your area.

The webinar is free to join, and you can register here.

The webinar flyer is available to download here.

Government Guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Out of School - Settings

The Department for Education has just published its updated guidance for safeguarding in out-of-school settings, which includes supplementary religious settings. Please see the links below for information on what needs to be done if you provide supplementary activities for children. Visit the link below for updated safeguarding guidance for providers and parents. 

FCG Chaplaincy Hub Offer for all Chaplains - Nourishing Roots with Paul Rochester

Join us for a day of reflection and spiritual renewal with the Free Churches Group, led by Bp. Paul Rochester, held in the beautiful and peaceful surrounds of the Royal Foundation of St Katherine, London on Tuesday 10th October 2023 from 10 am to 4 pm.

Paul is the General Secretary of the Free Churches Group and an ordained minister in the Church of God of Prophecy where his is a Senior Pastor for a Church in South London and has regional oversight for eight churches. Paul wrote his MA Dissertation on silence and Pentecostalism.

The day will include refreshments on arrival, mid-morning, and mid-afternoon as well as a hot buffet lunch.

Registration will be from 9.30am onward for a 10.00am start.

The cost for the day will be £20 for FCG chaplains, with a small number of places available for non-FCG chaplains from September.

Register your place here.

For more information, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

Visit here for more events.

Photo courtesy by Royal Foundation of St Katherine.

Jetzt ist die Zeit! (Now is the Time!)

The 38th German Protestant Kirchentag, 2023

Just over a month ago, I was setting off for Nürnberg (Nuremberg), in Bavaria to join over 100,000 other people from Germany and beyond in 5 days of exploring what it might mean when we read “Now is the time!” in the Gospel of Mark (or, in some translations “the time is fulfilled” – Mark 1.15).

I continue to reflect on the – at times, overwhelming – experiences of those days.

With over 2000 events and many more informal “happenings”, it was incredibly hard to decide where to be at any one time. The first evening presented the most straightforward set of choices, with 2 opening services – one in simple German- in large public squares in the city centre, and each of those was attended by thousands of people.

However, before the Kirchentag officially began there was, as every time, an opening act of remembrance, recognising the origins of the Kirchentag as a place of reconciliation for divided churches in a country that was only just beginning to come to terms with its past.

The past is never far away in Germany and each day as I walked to the station in Erlangen where I was staying, just outside Nürnberg, I walked past – or over – these Stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks: small memorials to people who had lived in that place.

The Abend der Begegnung (Evening of Encounters) was a chance for the churches in the region to welcome guests from near and far, with food, culinary delights and entertainment. The Bavarian bagpipe band, complete with kilts and sporrans, drew a lot of interest!

As I look through the programme again now, I’m conscious of how much I didn’t see or experience, but I’ll mention some of my highlights.

Firstly, the brilliant Bible study led by Revd Dr Susan Durber, a URC minister, and Europe President of the World Council of Churches. Exploring Luke 17.20-25, Susan helped a church full of people to think in new ways about the Kingdom of God.

By way of contrast, I joined a tour, with the theme of “Difficult Memorials”, visiting the former Nazi party rally grounds and congress hall. The Mayor of Nürnberg greeted us and talked about the problems of dealing with memorials that have such negative histories, and the dilemmas about preserving them or demolishing them. Linking with the Kirchentag theme, the question remains about when is the right time to decide.

Finally, I’d like to mention the superb concert by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in the wonderful surroundings of the Meistersingerhalle (I do love long German words!). Musically it was wonderful, and the prolonged standing ovation was an expression of solidarity with this displaced orchestra, acting as ambassadors for a war-torn country.

As well as all these events, formal and informal, there was a huge Markt der Möglichkeiten (Marketplace of Possibilities), taking over some of the huge halls in the exhibition centre with stalls representing a huge range of organisations and companies, offering things including pilgrimages to the Holy Land, ethical banking, chaplaincy with the German police force, and opportunities to give to charities. Alongside this was the enormous Kirchentag booksho.

As the Kirchentag closed on Sunday morning, the many experiences and emotions of 5 days in Nürnberg were brought together within the theme of a sermon entitled “There is a time for everything”.

The next Kirchentag will take place in Hannover, from 30 April to 4 May, 2025. Now is the time to start thinking about whether you might like to be there!

You can watch a video that gives a good overall impression of the Kirchentag here

You can read a reflection from another British participant here

Sarah Lane Cawte is the Education Officer for the Free Churches Group and a member of the Kirchentag British Committee.

Photos by British Kirchentag committee website and Sarah Lane Cawte

SUPPORTING RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN YOUR LOCAL SCHOOLS

Does your church host school visits, or would you like to think about ways in which you could invite schools to your building?

Would you consider talking about your Christian faith in an RE lesson, either in school, or through a video link? These are practical ways in which Free Church people can help children and young people to understand what it is to be a Christian and, in particular, what it means to be a Free Church Christian.

A new initiative – RegionalREHubs – has been set up to support schools, teachers and others involved in delivering Religious Education as part of the school curriculum, and one of its first activities is to equip speakers and those who host visits with the necessarily knowledge and insight to do so in a way that is compatible with the needs of schools.

The RegionalREHubs initiative is supported by a range of organisations, including the Religious Education Council, of which the Free Churches Group is a member – and has been for nearly 50 years! A series of free online training events has been launched, and anyone who is interested is invited to register for one of these dates:

2022

Monday 12 December 9:30-11am

2023

Tuesday 24 January 4-5:30pm

Monday 20 February 6-7:30pm

Thursday 23 March 2-3:30pm

Tuesday 18 April 9:30-11am

Wednesday 17 May 11-12:30pm

Tuesday 20 June 10-11:30am

To book a date, email: marketing@regionalrehubs.co.uk

Attending one of these training sessions offers participants the opportunity to sign up to an agreed set of principles for working with schools, and to gain a RegionalREHubs kitemark, either for individuals as speakers, or for church buildings where tours are offered. A national register will be developed, and any enquiries that come through the Regional Hubs will be passed to an appropriate person or an appropriate church. Do consider joining a training session and ensuring that Free Church voices are heard!

You can find more information here.

Photo by Christi Marcheschi on Unsplash