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A Prayer For Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: The Fragility of Freedom
The 27th of January is the day for everyone to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the millions of people killed under Nazi persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. The 27th of January marks the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
This year, the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is the 'fragility of freedom'.
We have developed the following prayer to reflect this theme, and we encourage Christians especially to mark HMD with these words:
A Prayer For Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: The Fragility of Freedom
Eternal God, we come before you, conscious of the fragility of freedom, to remember the victims of the Holocaust.
We lament the loss of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution, and victims of all genocides.
Remembering the past, help us today to use what freedom we have to stand up for those whose freedom is denied.
We pray for a day when all shall be free to live in peace, unity and love.
Amen.
For a Welsh language version of this prayer, please see below.
Gweddi ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost 2024: Bregusrwydd Rhyddid
27 Ionawr yw’r dydd i bawb gofio am y chwe miliwn o Iddewon a lofruddiwyd yn yr Holocost a’r miliynau o bobl a laddwyd gan ormes y Natsïaid, ynghyd â’r hil-laddiadau a ddigwyddodd wedyn yng Nghambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia a Darfur. Mae 27 Ionawr yn nodi gwaredigaeth Auschwitz Birkenau, gwersyll marwolaeth mwyaf y Natsïaid.
Eleni, y thema ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost yw ‘bregusrwydd rhyddid.’
Mae‘r Cyngor Cristnogion ac Iddewon wedi ysgrifennu’r weddi isod i adlewyrchu’r thema hon ac felly, gan ddilyn yr arweiniad hwn, mae’r Eglwys yng Nghymru yn annog Cristnogion i nodi Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost drwy arfer y geiriau hyn:
Gweddi ar gyfer Dydd Coffáu’r Holocost 2024: ‘Bregusrwydd Rhyddid.’
Dduw tragwyddol, deuwn ger dy fron, yn ymwybodol bod rhyddid yn beth bregus, er mwyn cofio am bawb a ddioddefodd yn yr Holocost.
Galarwn y golled o’r chwe miliwn o Iddewon a laddwyd yn yr Holocost, y miliynau o bobl eraill a ddioddefodd dan ormes y Natsïaid, ynghyd â phawb sydd wedi dioddef yn sgil hil-laddiadau eraill.
Wrth i ni gofio am y gorffennol, cynorthwya ni heddiw i arfer y rhyddid sydd gennym i amddiffyn y rhai y cymerir eu rhyddid oddi arnynt.
Gweddïwn am ddydd pan fydd pawb yn rhydd i fyw mewn tangnefedd, undod a chariad.
Amen.
For more information, please visit CCJ website HERE.
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
Pop–Up Reflective Practice for the Free Church Healthcare Chaplain
Reflective practice is part of the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities described in the UKBHC Capabilities and Competences (2015) document. Similarly, within the Spiritual Care Competences for Healthcare Chaplains (2020) document agreed for Scotland, is recognised as one of four domains of healthcare chaplaincy competence. As part of the process of continuing professional development chaplains are expected to demonstrates the ability to reflect upon practice in order to develop and inform their professional practice. Reflective practice, as described by Mark Stobert, is a form of supervision that is underpinned by a reflective practice mindset. It uses the potential of ‘reframing’ situations to unearth creative responses to those situations and to develop new knowledge of practice for those situations. Over time it becomes a developing state of mind so that we can reflect in action, not just on action. These pop-up sessions are for anyone to join, but are particularly aimed at those in smaller teams who might otherwise struggle to engage in reflective practice.
Photo by Carolina Heza on Unsplash
Dates for the first part of the year are as follows:
Thursday January 25th 12:00 to 13:00
Tuesday February 20th 09:00 to 10:00
Tuesday 26th March 12:00 to 13:00
Thursday 25th April 15:30 to 16:30
May- TBC
Monday 10th June 12:00 to 13:00
Tuesday 16th July 13:00 to 14:00
A reflection sheet for chaplains to use before the session to help think about what they might have on their mind and after the session to record learning can be downloaded from here. For more information or links/diary invites to the session, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk
Healthcare Chaplain Annual Study Day: Chaplaincy on the Edge
Exploring being on the margins through art, research and story
With input from Kate Cornwell, Tim Dixon, and Suzanne Nockels
Date: 12 June 2024, 10:00-16:00
Venue: Central URC Church, 60 Norfolk St, Sheffield S1 2JB
Price: £35
A discount code is available for the Free Church Healthcare chaplain.
Chris Swift writes about how chaplains are not simply on the margins between church systems and the medical paradigm that dominates the hospital, but between life and death, a Christendom past, and a contemporary spirituality that has rejected the rights of external authority. Yet, being perceived as on the border or edge can be a place of creativity that bring various benefits. Through story, art and research this study day will explore aspects of liminality and marginality and the joys, frustrations, opportunities and challenges that being ‘on the edge’ can bring.
Indicative Timetable for the day
10:15 Welcome and Introduction
10:30 Deep Talk 1
11:25 Break
11:40 Interpretating Art
12:45 Lunch
13:45 Reflections from Research
15:10 Break
15:25 Deep Talk 2
15:55 Depart/Cake and conversation
Deep Talk – sessions led by Kate Cornwell
Deep Talk is a creative and imaginative method that nurtures personal and community wellbeing. It uses life-coaching principles and the art of ancient storytelling to help individuals and groups consider their vision, wellbeing, and life purpose. Deep Talk has found success in various settings including workplaces, educational institutions, community groups, mediation, and professional development. These sessions, will give participants the opportunity to experience a full Deep Talk session and collectively explore what it means to work ‘at the edge’ of our various chaplaincy settings.
Interpretating Art – session led by Suzanne Nockels
Art, by its nature has no fixed meaning, is open to interpretation and can take on a new life not originally envisaged by the artist. Art is fluid so it can help us explore our own times of change. This session will involve sitting with a number of paintings and sculptures which broadly have healthcare as theme. They’ll be an opportunity to respond through open-ended questions and hear a little about the life and context of the artist. Together, we will build a fruitful conversation between the artwork, ourselves and between each other. Viewing art and talking around it can be a helpful tool in our own Chaplaincy contexts. At the end there will be the invitation to write or draw a response to something you’ve seen on a postcard (becoming an artist yourself).
Reflections from Research – session led by Tim Dixon
“It’s like you work for the prison, but you don’t!”
Tim will be leading us through a reflection on his doctoral thesis which looked at the pastoral care of remand prisoners and the role of the prison chaplain. One of the main themes explored there was the marginal or ‘liminal’ nature of chaplaincy, how we stand on the boundaries of people’s competing expectations and on the thresholds of being ‘part’ of the organisations we work for. Tim will make links to healthcare chaplaincy and how we work within ‘edge’ environments, with people trapped in limbo-like situations of disorientation sometimes for months or years at a time – what does this do to people and their identity, and what does it do to us? There will be opportunity for group discussion around these themes and what it might look like to live faithfully on the edge of things, and how this might be a benefit to our ministry, rather than a drawback.
If you are a Free Church Healthcare Chaplain, please contact Thandar at thandar.tun@freechurches.org.uk for the discount code.
Photo by PNW Production at pexels.com
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