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Growing
Through Conflict online course - extra dates
Due
to the popularity of the first week that we offered to lay
workers, Clive Fowle is offering a second opportunity for people
from all areas in the life of the church to join the Growing
Through Conflict online training course.
The new course dates are the 18th, 19th and
20th May 9.30-11.30am (all dates must be attended to
complete the course).
Please do forward this invitation to anyone within your circuits
who may benefit from attending.
Registration
is directly with Clive at clivefowle1@gmail.com where
he will ask for the home address of participants so that he can
send the course booklet directly to people homes.
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Black
Country Women's Aid
If members of churches are willing to
print off the following poster, and ask shops/businesses that are
open to display them that would be really good too. Churches that
have suitable public facing notice boards/windows could too. If
you could let Andrew
Beattie know those shops that agreed, and the ones
that refused (we do not want to pressure shops, sometimes
the on site staff are not allowed to decide this) it
would be helpful and much appreciated.
Anyone can call them for help, and at the very
least they will give the details of the more local support to
distant callers.
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All
We Can update
Firstly, as you may have seen if
you are connected to All We Can on social media, we have been
producing short videos every day at 1:17pm to help people keep a
sense of connection, togetherness and worship in these
strange and isolating times. We have been drawing on Paul’s
letter to the Colossians, and in particular Colossians 1:17,
where Paul writes that ‘in Christ all things hold
together’.
Secondly, All We Can and the
Methodist Church have launched a joint ‘Emergency Coronavirus
Appeal’, which is enabling people, communities and churches in
some of the world’s poorest communities to respond to the virus.
Some of you may have seen the Easter Methodist Sing-a-long on
Easter Sunday afternoon, where we launched this appeal. We have
been inviting people to pray with us, to give (if they can) and
to save lives together.
You can find out more about the appeal and support our work here
– allwecan.org.uk/globalresponse
Finally, All We Can and
Cliff College would like to invite you to Festival at Home, a
digital Cliff Festival on 22nd – 25th May. Festival at Home
is an opportunity to learn
with contributors across the world and our partners engaging in
the theme of ‘Global Vision’ and to engage with an online
community and to grow in faith together. This will be an exciting
digital gathering of Methodists and friends of Cliff where All We
Can will be launching our key campaign for 2020/21 – watch this
space!
You can find out more by joining
the Facebook group here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/2510136479204524
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Holocaust
Memorial Day
HMD takes place on 27 January
every year and remembers the six million Jews
killed in the Holocaust, the victims of Nazi persecution and
the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and
Darfur. It is a time to learn, remember and reflect on how we can
build a safer future.
HMD 2020 saw record participation from faith groups,
and we are hoping to build upon this further for 2021 and beyond
to ensure the messages of HMD are reaching every religious
community in the UK.
The theme for 2021 is Be the light in the darkness.
It encourages everyone to reflect on
the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways
individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the
light’ before, during and after genocide.
Increasing levels of denial, division and
misinformation in today’s world mean we must remain vigilant
against hatred and identity-based hostility. The utterly
unprecedented times through which we are living currently are
showing the very best of which humanity is capable but also the
much darker side of our world as well.
But we can all stand in solidarity – we can choose
to be
the light in the darkness in a variety of
ways and places - at home, in public, and online.
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Thy
Kingdom Come Special
More than ever, Thy Kingdom Come
offers the opportunity to engage in concerted prayer for the
coming of God’s kingdom, that the church will be equipped to
fulfill its mission and that family members, neighbours, friends
and work colleagues will come to faith in Christ. While gathered
prayer meetings will not be possible in May 2020, Thy Kingdom Come
prayer opportunities include:
- Pray
for Five
- Prayer
and Care
- 24/7
prayer/Continuous Prayer
- Free
Personal Prayer Journal
- Free
Family Prayer Treasure Map
- Loads
more resources at https://www.thykingdomcome.global/
Pray for
Five. This
has always been an emphasis during Thy Kingdom Come. An
encouragement to pray for five people we know who are not yet
followers of Jesus that they might be drawn to know and love Him
for themselves. The addition this year is that we also ask God
how we can share our faith with them both now and after the
restrictions are over.
More ideas here: https://www.thykingdomcome.global/sites/default/files/2019-03/Praying%20for%20Five%20Friends__TKC_Template.pdf
Prayer
and Care. It’s
amazing to see how much goodness is revealed through people’s
actions during this pandemic. Christians are also doing this of
course but are we interweaving our acts of kindness with prayer
and looking for the opportunities to speak a “word in season”?
There are more ideas and resources HERE.
24/7
Prayer / Continuous Prayer Why not consider hosting a
continuous virtual prayer event? It could be held for 24/1, 24/7
or 240 hours of prayer 24/10! You may wish to connect with other
churches locally from different denominations or even connect
with churches in different parts of the world. Have a look at the
continuous prayer page here to
enable that can help you to plan this event.
Free Personal Prayer Journal download
HERE
Free Family Prayer Treasure Map
download HERE engaging
children and their families in prayer
More
ideas, links
and resources can be found at the Thy Kingdom Come website HERE.
A video by Revd Canon Chris
Russell, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advisor
on Evangelism and Witness, can be viewed HERE.
A Thy
Kingdom Come app will become live in May. This has
daily videos, bible readings, reflections, and podcasts from N.T
Wright. The Thy Kingdom Come Video Library also has over 200
videos to download, including reflections and testimonies from
influential Christians.
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District
Children's Support Fund
The funding allocated
specifically to the support of children and families in the
District - particularly those experiencing some form of
deprivation - is still open to accept applications at the moment.
Are there projects you might consider which could offer
support even during the lockdown?
The
maximum amount of any claim is £500 and a Church can apply at any
time using the attached form
and send it electronically to Tim Lorimer who will process your
application and give a decision within six weeks of receipt. The
application will need the support of the hosting Church and
circuit superintendent. Church’s cannot apply for retrospective
funding.
We would hope that individuals and groups that have contributed
in the past to the Holiday Fund will still wish to do so knowing
that there money will still be used for Children’s Projects.
For more information please contact Tim Lorimer
on lorimertim@yahoo.co.uk
07971899084.
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District
Policy Committee Secretary Post
The
post of District Policy Committee Secretary has become vacant
following Angela's completion of her term, for which we would
like to thank her for her years of dedication and hard work.
If you would be interested in finding out more about the post,
please contact Rachel at chair@wsmethodist.org.uk
or admin@wsmethodist.org.uk
to request an application form.
Please be aware that the District Office is not in use at the
moment and so please do not leave messages on the office phone as
we are not able to access messages remotely.
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