Nourishing Roots - with Nicola Slee, 2nd July 2024 at Queen's Foundation, Birmingham

Photo by Dawn McDonald on Unsplash

A day of reflection and retreat for chaplains with Nicola Slee at Queen's Foundation, 18 Somerset Road Birmingham B15 2QH on 2nd July 2024, 10:00-16:00

Please join us on Thursday 2nd July in Birmingham for a day of reflection, retreat and recharging at the Queen's Foundation. Our day will be led by Prof. Nicola Slee. A two-course meal and refreshments for the full day will be provided.

Professor Nicola Slee is Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, and Professor of Feminist Practical Theology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has wide ranging interests in theology, spirituality, poetry and literature, and is a regular speaker at conferences and leader of retreats. Her most recent publications are Fragments for Fractured Times: What Feminist Practical Theology Brings to the Table (SCM, 2020) and Abba Amma: Improvisations on the Lord’s Prayer (Canterbury Press, 2022).’

Cost: £10 for FCG chaplains and £20 for all others (including lunch and refreshments).

For more information and a discount code for Free Church Chaplains, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

Are our children ready for school?

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash

A recently-published survey of 1000 parents and teachers by charity Kindred2 has found that 50% of teachers say children are less ready for school than they were a year ago.

1 in 4 children, the survey found, were not toilet-trained and 50% of the parents surveyed did not think it was their sole responsibility to toilet train their child.

Other issues identified were that nearly half of children entering reception classes in September 2023 were not able to sit still, and a quarter did not have basic language skills.

Many parents had had little contact with health visitors and reported that they did not fully understand what was needed for their child to be ready for school.

What can we do?

Many of our churches run thriving parent/carer and toddler groups, and others host pre-schools, so we are already doing a lot. Obviously much of this provision was unable to operate during the Pandemic, and children who are currently in Reception classes or about to enter school may have missed early opportunities for socialisation.

These groups can provide valuable sources of support for parents and carers of young children, particularly if they are supported by the church and wider community, where there is contact with people of different ages.

You might also consider hosting or running a parenting course.

Action for Children offers support for parents, including courses run through Children’s Centres, or accessed online or through text messages, and an online advice service called Parent Talk, where information is available and access to a parenting coach can be provided free of charge.

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