“…looking forward to being refreshed by your company. God’s peace be with all of you” (Romans 15:33, The Message)
From the Editor
A new start is usually the theme of an editorial when a new publication is launched – and who am I to argue?
After all, after a year of Covid-19 we’re all looking forward to a ‘new normal’ as soon as possible –but exactly when restrictions will be lifted is, as we go to press, still an unknown.
But the future is always unknown to us, so it’s reassuring to be walking with the One who knows the beginning from the end and holds our lives in his hands.
And as for a new start – every day is an opportunity for a new start with Jesus, whatever happened yesterday! As we confess, repent and move on in God’s grace, how fantastic it is to know that, in the words of that great hymn, “Great is Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. And all I have needed Thy hand hath provided, great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
That’s certainly my testimony. Whenever I’ve really been in need, God has come through for me.
As I begin as Editor of Refresh, I am enjoying working with the Congregational Federation and look forward to hearing more about the amazing work of the churches and individual Christians.
If you have a news story about your church, or a testimony of how you found Christ or how God has been at work in your life, do share it with us. Send it to my email address below – by 20 August for the next issue – to encourage others on their journey of faith. We can’t guarantee to publish all articles, but will use what we can.
If you want to know more about me – I have been involved in Christian publishing for over 30 years, which means I have become familiar with a wide range of denominations, church styles and cultures.
I began my editorial training at CWR (Crusade for World Revival) – the late Selwyn Hughes’ organisation. After that, I became Editor and Publishing Manager at CPO (Christian Publishing and Outreach) for eight years, and then spent five years at New Life Publishing, where I was editor of an evangelistic newspaper and deputy editor of the magazines of two national denominations.
In 2007 I went freelance, and have been producing the monthly outreach newspaper, Good News, for 13 years. I also write news for other Christian publications.
I’ve had a lot of new starts! But the Lord has been my firm foundation through it all.
May that be your experience too in the coming year.
Andrew Halloway a.halloway@ntlworld.com
Contents
1. From the General Secretary
3. Church Support News
6. Our Story: Woodham Ferrers
8. Where it’s OK not to be OK
10. Making dreams come true
12. Working for peace
13. Learning from the past
14. Together for the Kingdom
18. Break Time
19. Reviews
20. Vacancies and IT Support
21. Prayer Diary
Refresh Magazine is published by: The Congregational Federation, Congregational Centre, 8 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AS Tel: 0115 911 1460 www.congregational.org.uk Registered charity 264839
Editor: Andrew Halloway. Design and print: Verité CM Ltd. www.veritecm.com
All articles are copyright ©Refresh Magazine. Please contact the Editor if you would like permission to reproduce any content.
TO ORDER REFRESH
Refresh is available on annual subscription at £20 incl. p&p. Email: admin@congregational.org.uk or tel: 0115 9111460 for details.
From the General Secretary
Welcome to Refresh Magazine!
It is such a delight to be able to write for this new publication. I hope you enjoy the first issue and you are encouraged by its content. Please do let me know what you think.
Our hope is for two editions each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn, so if you would like to contribute in the future please contact our independent editor, Andrew Halloway. Andrew ironically lives in the Nottingham area, not far from our Centre, and is also Editor of the Good News evangelistic newspaper.
The past 12 months have seen us at home in our own community probably more than ever before. I feel very blessed where I live (I have always said Liverpool is the best city in the world!) as I am near a big park, a big supermarket and I’m surrounded by good neighbours.
An older couple, who have two big dogs, knock regularly with sweets for my daughter, Poppy. Another lady knocks regularly with chicken for Ruby, our dog, and these last 12 months have brought us together as a community in different ways.
Summer highlights
One of the highlights last summer was the day we arranged for an ice cream van to come to the street. All the neighbours came out and the queue was half-way down the road! We also organised the Carols on the Doorstep just before Christmas. It was a beautiful clear starry night and such a joy to sing!
One neighbour knocked to say thank you for the invite but “I don’t do carols.” That said, she hoped we would enjoy the evening and she gave me a bottle of wine! A few days later she told me she used to sit and watch Songs of Praise with her mum who has since died, and it brings back too many memories, although she confessed to watching from the window.
With both events I posted invites along with a Good News newspaper (that Andrew edits) which is a lovely way to share the good news of Jesus with our neighbours. If you would like a copy of the paper to see what it is like, let me know – I am more than happy to send you one.
‘The house did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.’
(Matthew 7:25)
I praise God for the miracles unseen over this pandemic and thank him that we have hope every day in our Saviour, Jesus.
During October I was part of the Churches Together in England (CTE) Missional Discipleship conference. It was a collection of Pecha Kucha presentations (which means ‘chit-chat’ in Japanese) and it was a privilege to share in mine about some of the amazing ways Congregational churches are serving their communities, from both before lockdown and during lockdown.
I shared about the toddler groups in Hawick and Market Harborough who have still been giving away craft bags and connecting with the young families. I shared about the free food table in Newport, Isle of Wight, and the food parcels in Anchor and Eyemouth. I shared about the creative ideas planned for Christmas in our Sheffield churches with trails and jars of light, and the carolling in Yelvertoft.
One presentation that I was particularly interested in was from Neighbourhood Prayer Network (NPN), which was started over ten years ago and encourages us to take a spiritual lead in our road/street and pray for the neighbours by name. On their website you can sign up to pray for your street, either as an individual or as a church.
As a coincidence, in the same week I was contacted by an organisation called ‘as one’, who are an associate member of Churches Together in England. Their hope is that churches will play a pivotal part in bringing neighbourhoods together under the banner of ‘Fill your street with friendliness’. Before Covid, the aim was to re-ignite community spirit. Now, postCovid, the priority and opportunity is to ‘capture’ something of the community spirit that the emergency actually ignited – and to help it become a permanent feature of streets up and down the country.
If you would like more information about these organisations, please let me know, otherwise have a look at their websites: neighbourhoodprayer.net and as-one.uk.
Churches have continued to serve their communities over the past twelve months, be it in amazing practical ways, worshipping through Zoom or in quiet faithful prayer at home.
Zoom prayers
Faithful prayer at home is something that has been such a comfort to me over these 12 months. I have enjoyed family Zoom prayers – I have delighted in Poppy praying for herself and asking for prayer. I have been challenged by the Parenting for Faith course to encourage ‘catching’ God – to stop and listen for God’s voice. And I’ve even got confident in praying live over Facebook to encourage others and pray for this pandemic.
I must thank our Presidents, Janet Wootton and Suzanne Nockels, our national Church Support worker Luzia, and Roo MacRae, Minister at Eyemouth, who have been on a rota with me for live Friday Facebook prayers to continue our faithfulness of giving everything to God.
Lorna Cammock, a member at Oban Congregational Church, sends ideas for prayers out each week, and included in this issue is a prayer diary (thanks to Liz Dean) which I hope encourages you for the months ahead. I have loved joining Martin Top for prayers every Monday on Zoom too. Praying with others is such a blessing.
I hope now that spring is here that many of you will have been vaccinated and there are signs that the Covid restrictions will start to be lifted. I praise God for the miracles unseen over this pandemic and thank him that we have hope every day in our Saviour, Jesus.
May you continue to draw your strength and comfort from him.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13 (NIV)
God bless you,
Yvonne Campbell
Yvonne Campbell, General Secretary
What a year to start a new job!
The Federation’s new national Church Support worker, Luzia Watt, shares the joys of her first nine months in the role – despite Covid-19
Since I started working for the Congregational Federation in June 2020, I have been busy developing my role as a new national support worker. Despite the various lockdowns and the Covid-19 restrictions, many exciting projects and new activities have arisen out of the pandemic.
The Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to work with amazing colleagues and get to know so many incredible people who are involved in numerous ways with the work around the different churches across the Federation.
Grants
One of my jobs, as a national support worker, is to help churches to apply for the three grants offered by the CF. It has been a complete pleasure to support churches applying for grants that will enable them to further develop their ministry in their churches and community.
This year and last year, we had many churches successfully apply for grants which helped them to get involved with projects that will make a huge difference in their local community. Some of the grants that our churches applied for were used for community projects, Christmas hampers, toys, books, to hire community workers, ministers and Messy Church equipment, to buy Bibles for school children, etc.
I see myself involved indirectly in each of these projects as one of the people who facilitates these grants. It has been incredibly rewarding to be part of the grants process with each church that applied and helping to make the kingdom of God accessible for many people.
Newsletters
It has also been a pleasure to be responsible for the two CF national newsletters. This provides the opportunity each month to resource our churches with the latest events, ideas and material available in the gospel world.
One of the aspects that I thoroughly enjoy about preparing the newsletters is to research the social media of many churches, enabling me to know what activities they are preparing or what they have already prepared. By accessing their social media pages, I get to know more about each church and their unique way of doing things and understand the context and meet the real people behind each church.
And with all this information and numerous pictures, I can promote and encourage their hard work and inspire other churches and readers of the newsletters.
Youth and children
Although I enjoy all the activities that I have mentioned, youth and children’s ministry are my real passion. I worked as a secondary school teacher for over ten years, so my professional skills and expertise are around children and youth.
Since I started getting involved with the youth and children’s ministry in the CF, my aim was always to develop material and sessions that were not only interactive and colourful but also engaging and relevant to them. My vision is that I can’t achieve anything alone without the help of God and support of the CF churches. Therefore the local churches and youth have been involved from the beginning. In the last few months, I tried to achieve that by involving our churches as much as possible in preparing content that can be put together as one whole youth and children’s session.
In October 2020, myself and several churches across the Federation prepared an online light party. It was amazing – we had over 200 viewers on YouTube. The party consisted of sessions with interactive games, challenges, quizzes and fun games played by the youth and children across the Federation. We also had music, a short message and sport challenges, all prepared by the churches and myself. I was responsible for most of the video editing and putting together the session. It was an incredible experience, and as a consequence, I am organising another online Easter party with the churches this year.
I also organised an online youth and children’s leaders’ link-up day last November. We had a speaker from Durham University who made us reflect on how important it is to disciple parents to enable them to disciple their own children at home. It was a session that challenged me to consider how fundamental the role of the parent is in their children’s spirituality. I believe that session was uplifting and thoughtprovoking for our youth and children’s leaders.
For this Easter, I am preparing another youth and children’s leaders’ link-up day in March. This time we will have the director of Faith in Kids and author of many children’s books, Ed Drew. I am so excited to hear Ed’s inspiring talk and material as I am sure it will be an excellent opportunity for many youth and Continued on the next page.
My vision is that I
can’t achieve anything alone without the help of God and support of the CF churches.
Learning & Development in the Congregational Federation
Dr Walter Riggans, Learning & Development Manager
We have been happily continuing with providing learning and fellowship workshops and seminars for churches and those in ministry throughout the pandemic, and 2021 will have plenty on offer. Here are three examples of what we are offering.
1. Likewise Days
These are the workshop days that we arrange with one or more local churches on subjects that interest or concern many Christians today. Our next day will be in April on the subject of Pioneering Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church, and will be accessible wherever you are in Britain. Come and join us!
Other subjects being considered for this year are the challenge of new religious movements, how to enhance your effectiveness in reading Scripture in church services, and reading the narratives in the Bible for all they are worth. Keep your eye on the CF website.
2. Continued Ministerial Development Days
We held a good number of online workshop days in 2020 and we plan to do the same this year until we can meet again in our UK regions. The two focal subjects in 2020 were the biblical wisdom literature (the spring series) and exploring contemporary methods for interpreting and preaching from Scripture (the autumn series). This year… let’s see what emerges as an important subject.
3. Pioneering Ministry Working Party
As some of you will know, among the seven accredited ministries of the CF is a relatively recent one entitled Pioneer Minister. These Pioneers will work under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and in partnership with others, to bring into being new expressions of church in new places. With this in mind, a working party was set up at the end of 2019 to explore ways in which this ministry could be encouraged and actualised in the CF.
from an excellent and experienced youth and children’s practitioner.
Prayer
There is another aspect of my job that I really enjoy, which is to prepare a short prayer once a month to go on the CF Facebook page. I’ve enjoyed having the chance to talk about my faith in an
We are working with purpose and enthusiasm on this, and invitations to participate in Likewise Days and other events will be coming your way throughout the year. If you have an interest in this, and especially if you sense a possible calling from God into new ways of outreach into different communities, get in touch!
Continued from the previous page.
organic way, by praying. By doing this session I also have the chance to talk about the gospel to people, whilst making myself known amongst the different CF churches and people, so when people need to contact me they know who I am.
Overall, I think my words echo how much I am enjoying working for the Federation family. I praise the Lord for such a great opportunity to serve in his kingdom!
The Congregational Institute for Practical Theology
By Dr Walter Riggans, Learning & Development Manager
Since March 2020, we have had to make significant changes to the way we run the training course and all our other courses and events, and we have discovered that some of what we have been channelled into doing actually points us to positive ways forward. We continue to be proactive, flexible and enthusiastic, and we have approached 2021 with the same openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
1. The Training Course
We have had to run the last four training weekends remotely, but by God’s grace and the huge commitment and generosity of spirit of both tutors and students, they have gone well. We are anticipating that the remaining weekends this year will also be held remotely. Though we are well aware that this is a poor second best to our residential training weekends, we will continue to meet regularly online for our sessions and face-times of fellowship.
Ten new students joined the training course this year, and we thank God for this, given the wholesale uncertainty about how life would develop for people over the course of the summer and autumn. We also have four people who are taking stand-alone modules during the academic year, and we hope that this will lead them to applying for more in the future, perhaps even the full course. Two new tutors, James Gregory and Sue Rayner, have joined the teaching team and are actively engaged in enriching and strengthening our provision.
We created and introduced a new module on Pioneering and Fresh Expressions of Church; we are about to offer our module on Pastoral Care, thoroughly revised for today’s society; and we have begun work on creating two further modules, one which integrates the call to discipleship and the discipline of spirituality, and one specifically on preparation for preaching.
Our new Course Guide and Prospectus will soon be available on the CF website, so do check us out. And remember – you can take any of our modules as a stand-alone subject, so have a look to see what interests you. While the weekends are being run remotely, you won’t even need to travel!
2. The GIFT Course
Because of the lockdown, the local groups that were engaged in this church course either had to meet remotely or postpone their fellowship and study sessions. But we are in good heart, and commitment and confidence levels are high for the future, even though we are still uncertain as to when groups will be able to meet personally again.
But this is also a good place to announce that we will shortly be starting to revise the handbooks for the various modules in this course, and we will post samples
and updates on the CF website from time to time so that you can see what we will have to offer your church.
3. The Alumni Association
Our alumni, those who have had any contact with any of the courses and events that we have run over the years and who want to play a part in supporting current students and events, have been invaluable to us. We thank you all for your continuing prayer and financial and other support.
At our AGM each year we also have a guest presentation from a nationally recognised ministry or mission practitioner. In the past three years we have had an expert on being effective in mission in a society that wants to marginalise Christian and church involvement in public life, one on the challenge of new religious movements in the UK, and one on spirituality and ageing. This year’s presenter has yet to be chosen, but we will enjoy that input when we meet – remotely – later this year.
If you haven’t yet joined our Alumni Association, please do consider it. Your encouragement will make a big difference to us.
4. Summer School
We are very excited about this new development –our first Summer School. These annual or biannual events will showcase the distinctive contribution of Congregationalism within the broad family of Christian traditions and churches. We believe that the time is right to share this with others in a respectful and confident way. The theme for the first one will be: Is Christian Non-Conformity a Thing of the Past? It will be a mix of plenary sessions and interactive workshops, aiming to answer that question in a resounding negative.
We are bringing together historians and theologians from within the CF and further afield, and we hope that this will be a timely and effective time of fellowship and renewed hope. The original date for our first Summer School had to be postponed, as did the next date, and at the moment we are unsure of when we will be able to hold this national event. It may be in the final months of this year or early in 2022.
We encourage all members of our churches to register to participate in this significant event. Keep your eye on the CF website.
One evening on a train journey, as I looked out into the darkness, I had a Holy Spirit moment.
OUR STORY
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
The Woodham Ferrers experience
By Rev Eric Fenwick
On 21 March 2021 I will have been pastor of Woodham Ferrers Chapel and Schoolroom in Essex for 20 years.
I first started taking services over 30 years ago and I knew three of my immediate predecessors. With the passing of time change was happening but we were carrying on just the same.
It was quite normal 20 years ago to have a congregation in the high twenties with a regular average of over 20.
During those years we held regular prayer meetings, asking God for guidance and renewal in the life of the Chapel.
Seven years ago things were looking much different and it was beginning to become a struggle for such a small membership, so we started Café church once a month on a Sunday afternoon, which was a great blessing as more people came.
If we sold the land we owned but no longer used for parking, we could refurbish the Schoolroom and create a Christian outreach centre with a cafe for the ‘whosoever’. If I had spoken about refurbishing the Chapel at that stage it would have been a bridge too far at that point.
Through my church connections I knew a professional town planner and an architect. Looking back, it’s amazing how God brings it all together.
On 7 January 2015 I met with the town planner to discuss the project. He took measurements and pictures, and a few months later we had planning permission for one single dwelling.
Don’t forget Woodham
At this time my mother was dying. Over two weeks I sat with her every day into the evening. A day or two before she died she said to me in a whisper: “Don’t forget Woodham. I sense the Holy Spirit there.”
Community ‘A Christmas Carol’
purpose out.
The architect had already been working on the refurbishment plans. My requests were a stainless steel kitchen and sympathetic lighting. His design split the kitchen and hall with a counter, which was inspired as it made it what it is today – a community cafe.
The person that I had in mind for community pastor rightly decided to accept another call. As always God was in control, and I met Emma Hunnable through a Baptist minister friend. Amazingly, the Schoolroom community pastor’s ministry was just what Emma felt called to do.
Now, five years later, Emma and I work together on everything. We have had some fantastic services, retreat days and events, as well as working with the team in the café, meeting lots of new people… until March 2020.
God is in control
The pandemic has changed everything, but God IS in control. During the first lockdown, Emma and I shared in our times of prayer what we thought God was saying to us, through what we discerned through the Holy Spirit.
In September 2020 we became a hub for “serving the community through faith in action”, so we now have a Fairshare Community Food Pantry. Godwilling, after lockdown we will also have Wellbeing Wednesdays; Mindfulness Sessions; Cap Money Course; Job Club; and Community allotments will follow.
Through the new food pantry ministry we are meeting new people that God is sending us. We feel very privileged to be able to serve God in this way.
discovered in our pipe organ and to remove it and refurbish the organ would have cost in the region of £12,000. So the organ went, and we refurbished the chapel after all. A new space was created with the previous two areas blending as one.
When the final builders’ bill came in for the Schoolroom, it was under budget by around £12,000 – the amount we had paid to refurbish the Chapel! God really was in control.
If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that “things will be different”. It’s a sea change and with God’s guidance we must change too. The gospel remains the same but it will take on fresh expressions.
There is a saying in business: “You can’t use yesterday’s tools in today’s market and be ahead tomorrow.” I know just how true that is. “Those who can, do; those who can’t just talk about it.”
God willing, what changes will you make? We need to be more entrepreneurial in our churches; we need to see what the Holy Spirit is doing and join in.
P.S. In January we decided to buy a container for our food pantry. We wanted a small one, lined with a bulkhead inner door. The first local company I contacted had exactly what we wanted. How amazing is that? All thanks and praise to God.
We need to be more entrepreneurial in our churches; we need to see what the Holy Spirit is doing and join in.
A dedication service
The Saturday Kitchen team
The Little Lambs toddler group
Ruth Rice, director of a national network of wellbeing centres set up by local churches, explains the movement’s explosive growth –which has continued even during the pandemic
Quiet shared spaces where it’s OK not to be OK
I love people.
I love teaching. I love the church.
I love Jesus. But I think I was trying too hard to make him and everyone else love me back.
“I like coming here because now someone knows my name.”
This was the shocking statement from one of our regulars at Renew 37, a wellbeing café in Nottingham when we first set it up a few years ago. When asked what she meant this lady told us she could go all week and not hear anyone say her name. She was lonely, isolated and trapped in her four walls, she said. This was one of many comments from folk who found their way into our little centre. New Life Baptist Church in West Bridgford had created this “shared front room” style of place in response to the growing need for wellbeing habits and our increased awareness of how isolated some folk were.
This unassuming little centre, next door to an existing tea shop, offers a welcome four days a week to anyone who wants to attend to their wellbeing. “Bring a hobby, share a hobby” is the motto, and on entering you can join in any table-top activity from jigsaws to furniture restoration. Those of any faith and none are welcome and treated equally.
At various intervals one of the hosts lets people know there will be a led prayer time in the quiet room. Some folk leave their craft or activity and
move through to an adjacent room, door left open, and sit quietly to be led in a prayer around a psalm, the Lord’s Prayer or the ‘Examen’ prayer (rewinding the day with God).
Visitors to a Renew centre enjoy craft activities
Everyone seems willing to offer short prayers. Some folk know the God they are talking to and others are just getting to know him. All are welcome. It is a very simple prayer time and then the activities resume.
A member of the local council mental health team pops her head in and joins in a conversation. It is calm, quiet and beautiful.
Renew 37 (‘37’ because the address was 37 Abbey Road) was the realisation of a dream I had after suffering a breakdown several years earlier. I was a primary school teacher for many years whilst being mum to three gorgeous kids and wife to my longsuffering husband. I had always been a bit driven, to be honest. I love people. I love teaching. I love the church. I love Jesus. But I think I was trying too hard to make him and everyone else love me back.
Years of overwork and lack of self-care led to a year of poor mental and emotional health that took me by surprise. I spent the best part of a year off work and in bed. Burnout is no joke. I also found the church I loved and helped lead so tricky to be part of in those days. It is difficult as a leader to admit when you are not OK. It’s hard to answer the “how are you?” question honestly, and hard to receive prayers for healing because you fear that life will get overwhelming again. So it is easier to avoid, to stay away, to become isolated.
During this time I realised that my personal life – the habits no one saw, the quiet contemplative parts of my life – needed some attention. I realised that God loved me just for me, that I too am human and I needed to have some self-compassion.
I discovered rhythms of prayer learnt from retreat
Ruth Rice, founder of the Renew Wellbeing charity, with her new book
centres and habits of meditation using a cuppa and the Psalms.
I learnt to dwell – coining the phrase ‘dwellbeing’ – and seeing the image of the cup held in my hands each day as I sat quietly in God’s presence as the best way to describe wellbeing. He holds us. There is a bigger story. There is room for joy and sorrow in the cup.
The journey back
After clawing my way back to health, I left teaching and led the church full time. This wonderful church went with me on a journey to see what we could do for people struggling with their mental health, as we discovered the statistic that one in four people have a mental health challenge at some point in their lives. I think this will be much worse now due to the pandemic.
Renew 37 opened in September 2015. We learnt together how to host a quiet space where ‘it’s OK not to be OK’ for church and community.
As other churches began to ask for my help to set up similar spaces these three principles emerged:
Be present – Show up when you say you will show up at least two hours a week in a café-style space that feels like home. No them and us, all welcome. Bring a hobby, share a hobby.
• Be in partnership – Develop a working partnership with mental health services so the church can keep it simple and refer people on to professional help where needed, and so those services can recommend a safe space run by the local church.
• Be prayerful – Keep a prayer space open the whole time the social space is open, separate to it but attached, so that anyone can join the rhythm of prayer, sit in the quiet and learn to pray for themselves.
The following year I knew God was calling me to help other churches establish such spaces, so Renew Wellbeing began and really took off when, a year later, I took a leap of faith and gave up the day job to travel round to churches wanting to join the Renew Wellbeing family.
We realised that it didn’t have to be in a pretty café – it could be in a church building, a library, a park even… it was the principles and the presence of God that brought life and hope.
By March 2020 when the first Covid-19 lockdown began, we were devastated to have to advise our then 50 centres to close. But little did we know that God had only just begun calling the local church to be at the heart of a wellbeing movement.
(‘Slow Down, Show up and Pray’).
We increased from a team of three to eight, with area coordinators helping churches get started.
Now over 150 churches are either running centres or getting ready to open them, and every day more join the story.
It’s a delight to see how God can use a story of vulnerability and the need to slow down and be present to bring freedom and wellbeing to many communities. This seems to be good for the Church too… and why wouldn’t it be when at its heart it is all about prayer?
We are finding that as we unashamedly offer prayer spaces, and as we slow down, show up and pray, people want to join in. People want to pray.
During the months that followed we put all our training online, ran a webinar a week on Zoom, a daily video on wellbeing, and I had a book published that could be used as a manual to set up a centre
“Lord, teach us to pray” was the disciples’ cry at the beginning of Luke 11. They had just been on a busy mission trip, seen many miracles, heard the story of the Good Samaritan and I imagine had formed an idea of a Jesus-following lifestyle that would put the most activist Christian today to shame.
But at the end of chapter 10 of Luke, Jesus throws in a wild card. At the home of Mary and Martha, Martha is busy running around serving. Mary just sits at his feet.
When challenged, Jesus says: “Martha, Martha! You are worried and upset about so many things, but ONLY ONE THING IS NECESSARY. Mary has chosen what is best, and it will not be taken away from her” (CEV).
You can feel the confusion in the room. You can imagine the conversation among the disciples who had, a little like the old me, decided that ‘busyness was next to godliness’. But here was Jesus declaring that rest, contemplation and just being with him was the best option.
Of course we need both. Being and doing equals becoming. But when push comes to shove, Jesus would rather have our presence than our presents.
I believe that practising his presence and sharing these practices is not only what I needed and what the Church needs, but what everyone needs.
Are you taking care of your mental health? What would it look like if the local church in every town, or even every street, was at the very heart of this shalom, this wellbeing?
A web of wellbeing. Lord, let it be so.
‘Slow Down, Show Up and Pray’ by Ruth Rice is available from Christian booksellers and Amazon. It was the principles and the presence of God that brought life and hope.
See www.renewwellbeing.org.uk for further information.
Renew 37 in West Bridgford, Nottingham – the first centre, where it all started
Making dreams come true
Be inspired by these stories of incredible projects from some of our churches across the Federation, made possible because of CF grants!
Starter grant – towards Christian library
Rob Cross, Brierley Green Congregational Church
We applied for a grant to buy some books to encourage people in their faith, as we are not able to meet up in the normal way. We got a selection and plan to buy more in due course. Displaying the books has not been plain sailing due to Covid-19 restrictions on touching books, so a list was sent out to members, placed on the church noticeboard for any neighbours who were interested, and I advertised the range of books. So far just four books have been borrowed, but we are working on it.
When safe to do so we plan to put up a shelf in our refurbished school room where we enjoy refreshments after the service; this will allow people to see the books and browse. Thanks to the Federation for the starter grant and the opportunity to try something new.
Left: Some of the books Brierley Green purchased
Mini-grant – towards Christmas activities
Janice E. Andrews, Minister, Musselburgh Congregational Church
Our church was very thankful to receive £100 which we used to continue the work with our young people. Just before Christmas we organised a joint event with Sunday School and youth group, and 16 young people came along to a social evening with the minister, youth and Sunday School leaders. It was wonderful to be with one another in person, despite the social distancing. Every child in our Sunday School received teaching packs right up until Christmas Eve and a small Christmas gift. We thank you for this support which made all this possible.
At Christmas 2019, we had 30 young people in church. We have lost some through normal changes like going off to college and university, but there’s no doubt that we have a long hard climb back to anything like these numbers. Occasional social events when possible really help to encourage us all.
Mini-grant – towards Christmas activities
Sandra Turner, Secretary, Stalbridge Congregational Church
In November, we did not meet for Messy Church due to Covid, so we made up 20 Messy Advent family bags. These contained the Roots Jesse Tree activity, several wooden nativity figures and crayons to colour them in – with instructions to bring one to put on our Messy Church Christmas Tree in December. We also included pastry and mincemeat to be made into mince pies, and a pop-up Christmas card to colour in and bring to Messy Christmas. On 9 December we met for Messy Church –12 families with 23 children in total. Each child left with a Christmas present – sadly Santa couldn’t make it in person this year but each family took home a small goody bag!
The following Saturday we held our Christmas Tree Festival (the first outside) as many town groups had requested a tree. Ten Trees were decorated, survived the wind and rain and looked wonderful. The Stalbridge Singers sang Christmas songs and our children soon joined in! We served hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream and mince pies. The Festival brought joy to friends and neighbours of our church. Thanks to CF for all its encouragement and prayer during 2020 and the mini grant which helped us cover some of the costs.
Below: Messy Christmas at Stalbridge
Starter grant – towards microphone equipment
Peter Thomas, Grassington Congregational Church
Mid-pandemic last year, when everyone was looking for new ways to communicate, we approached the Federation for a starter grant towards microphone equipment and stands for use in a make-shift studio. As a church we have a regular input into 20 local schools across the area and two nursing homes. We have been able to record and post some exciting material. Schools now benefit from a fortnightly assembly, collective worship and some reflective resources.
The local clergy team also produce daily reflections that go out via email and some hard copies for those without computers. The local services are recorded and messages available for distribution. We are grateful for the ongoing support and help that the grant has provided and hope to continue reaching out to others. We also held a number of services outside across the villages of the area in the run-up to Christmas. We hope to follow up at Easter should restrictions lift and guidance allow.
Starter grant –towards camcorder
Keith Bradley, Tapton Hill Congregational
Church
As a result of the first lockdown and church closures, the two Congregational churches in Sheffield led by Rev Suzanne Nockels were considering how best to reach their congregations. Suzanne trialled recording her Sunday sermon on a borrowed camcorder and uploading it onto YouTube with some success. We soon realised that her message was being circulated to a far wider audience than a ‘normal’ Sunday service. In fact, through various social media, the message was reaching people unlikely to enter the church buildings, and we were receiving excellent feedback.
At the spring Church Support Committee, Yvonne Campbell highlighted that churches who were considering a new one-off form of mission due to Covid could apply for a ‘starter’ grant. An application on behalf of both churches was submitted and a grant for £500 was received. The process was straightforward and easy. The grant allowed the purchase of a camcorder, tripod and accessories which are used each week, with sermons now not only accessible on YouTube but on both churches’ websites. Recordings can also be burned onto DVDs for those without computers.
It is difficult to know if viewing the sermons online led to any newcomers to church, but the Christian message is certainly reaching a wider audience than before we got the grant. Many thanks.
Mini-grant –towards soft play slide
Emma Hunnable, The Chapel and School Room, Woodham Ferrers
In January 2020 we were awarded a mini grant of £100. We were hiring soft play equipment each month for our toddlers, but after a conversation with our mums we decided to start building up our own equipment. We voted on what we felt the children enjoyed playing with the most and it was decided the most popular item was the elephant slide. One mum found where we could get the same slide for £99.99 with free delivery, so we completed the application near enough on the spot!
A few weeks later several parents asked if we had heard back about the grant. There was much excitement from the adults and children when we were able to order our own slide. Unfortunately, not long afterwards we went into lockdown, but the children did get to play on it. Our toddler sessions are going to be really needed once restrictions are lifted and we know the slide will be well-loved and well-used. The mini grant is a great way to buy new equipment and get others involved in applying as well.
Mini-grant – towards children’s blessing bags
Eva Maudsley, Wavertree Congregational Church
We were delighted to receive the £100 grant because we have been able to make bags of blessing for any children (or adults) that are new to the church or who visit.
Since our Heritage Day open weekends in September 2019 we had been attracting new people to church on a Sunday, so we wanted to find a way to encourage them, even if they only visited for one week.
The blessing bag was an idea from the North West Area Children’s Worker. Each bag has a gospel and tract, some tissues, a sweet, a toy, church pens and little notebooks. There is this Bible verse on the tag: “All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be their peace” – Isaiah 54:13. We are also going to have fridge magnets made with the church picture and website on.
The slide bought with the grant
One of the ‘Bags of Blessing’ made by Wavertree Church
If you would like to apply for a grant or find out more about our grants, please contact a support team member and share your ideas, and we will work with you to find ways in which the Federation may be able to help, including starter grants, mini-grants and impact grants.
Contact: Luzia.watt@congregational.org.uk
‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ The work of the Congregational Peace Fellowship
By Simone Ramacci, Assistant Pastor, Wivenhoe Congregational Church
Many have not heard of the Congregational Peace Fellowship before, perhaps due to our recent inactivity, so I have taken it upon myself to explain what we do and explore how we can best serve Congregational churches in the future.
I was due to have a stall at the May Assembly 2020, but after that was cancelled I decided it would be good to write a few words about the Christian peace tradition within Congregationalism and what it could look like in the future.
The Past
The Congregational Peace Fellowship could see us being a power for good in the 21st century too. Will we heed the call once more?
Congregationalism has had a significant history of individuals espousing the Christian peace witness, which I had the pleasure of researching during my Foundation degree with the Congregational Institute of Practical Theology.
Congregationalists in the 19th century played leading roles in the London Peace Society, and we know of at least one minister (Alexander Mackennal) opposing the Boer War, much to the displeasure of his congregation in Bowdon Downs.
Many more voices against war can be found in the 20th century – as meticulously described by Alan Argent in his Transformation of Congregationalism. During the Great War notable figures such as Leyton Richards, W E Orchards, and C J Cadoux were hard to ignore.
Richards caused quite a stir at Bowdon Downs and was both a founding member and General Secretary of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Orchards is remembered as the most energetic anti-war preacher in the Congregational Union, as well as being a founding member of FOR and a chaplain to imprisoned conscientious objectors. Cadoux served with the Friends Ambulance Unit and wrote the long-popular The Early Christian Attitude to War.
In the interwar period the Congregational Union of England and Wales (CUEW) went as far as establishing a working committee on war, which did not come to a firm conclusion but expressed preference for pacifism as a Christian ideal – only to regretfully accept the necessity of the new war later on.
Notable CUEW pacifists during the Second World War include once again Richards and Cadoux (who wrote Christian Pacifism Re-examined in light of the new conflict), but also other FOR members such as H C Carter, who often ministered to members whose conscience was troubled by the conflict. The first woman to be ordained as a Congregational Minister,
Constance Coltman, was not only a life-long pacifist and FOR member, she was also actively involved in founding the Christian branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Congregationalism has always claimed it aimed to return to the “purity and truth of the Apostolic Church” (as some of our forbears said), and I firmly believe the case made by Cadoux in 1919 that such a purity and truth involves a new attitude to war: one which many Congregationalists defiantly embraced in the last century, and one we ought to rediscover in the current one.
The Future
Writing how the CPF might serve Congregational churches in the future might seem to suggest I am rooting for a radical break with the past. In fact, I think much inspiration can be taken from the history of the ecumenical Fellowship of Reconciliation to which many notable Congregationalists have belonged.
From its inception, the FOR realised that Christian peace witness is much more than being against war: the 1914 ‘basis’ Leyton Richards and others helped write understood that Christians “are forbidden to wage war” but highlighted how we are also called “to a life-service for the enthronement of Love in personal, commercial and national life”.
In the FOR’s 100+ years of history this has meant not only advocating for alternatives to war and for reconciliation in Ireland, but also at times working with young offenders and campaigning for justice, in the understanding that issues like poverty and hunger are often good tinder for the flames of war.
Taking inspiration from them, I imagine the CPF being involved in campaigns against the arms trade, against the wasteful spending on nuclear weapons whilst adults and children hunger, and exploring the effects of British foreign policy and climate change on instability abroad. The CPF could act as a link between individuals in Federation churches and the wider Christian justice movement, as well as cultivating new voices that can enrich the British Peace Movement and bring Congregational values to the forefront of British life as they once were.
Congregationalism’s call that we “limit not the truth of God” helped abolish slavery, advanced women’s rights and nurtured democracy: the Congregational Peace Fellowship could see us being a power for good in the 21st century too. Will we heed the call once more?
Learning from the past
Alan Argent, Editor of the Congregational History Society Magazine, explains why history is
History is important because our Christian faith is in a God who is outside time and space and yet still intervenes in our lives here and now.
Time, being transient and passing, does not matter very much, and past, present and future are all illusory. Therefore the heroes, saints and paragons of the past are still here, and still resources available to us in good times or bad. They are our friends whose experiences, setbacks and triumphs alike, remain as examples of how we should and should not behave and how we too might be tested and inspired.
In short, the Congregationalists of the past are our friends still. Certainly I derive great encouragement from them in my daily life, as I believe in like fashion do all our Congregational History Society (CHS) members.
With the splintering of Congregationalism in England, and of English-speaking Congregational churches in Wales (following the foundation of the United Reformed Church, the Congregational Federation and other Congregational groupings in the early 1970s), some individuals felt that their interest in Congregational history needed to be embodied and expressed in one such society.
The CHS (founded in 1978 and first called the Congregational History Circle but re-named in 2006) was the result, beginning life in the mid-1970s with visits to churches, chapels and meeting houses across the country. The CHS was proudly independent of any ecclesiastical body (it is not part of the Congregational Federation) and remains so. It raises all its own funds and its officers are all volunteers, as they have always been.
The CHS Magazine was soon in demand as a way of encouraging and publishing research and original contributions to serious historical enquiry into our precedents, and to explore why and how our churchmanship has developed as it has.
Since the 1990s, and the fragmentation of Scottish Congregationalism, the CHS has had many active Scottish members too, and has published articles on various aspects of Scottish Congregationalism. The CHS is keen to preserve the archives of bodies like the Congregational Federation and of local churches so that these are not lost when a key person dies.
a resource for our lives today
Welsh Independents and other traditions, with perhaps even some from non-Christian backgrounds. Undoubtedly the CHS has an evangelistic aspect which is unintended but perhaps not entirely accidental. In addition, we do have a handful of CHS members overseas.
All the members are united in their joint interest in honouring the saints of the past, like John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, David Livingstone, Constance Coltman and Elsie Chamberlain, to name but a few. Their courage, witness and faith have shown us how we might live better Christian lives, despite the very real obstacles in our own age. In so doing, we believe that we better understand Congregationalism now, as well as in the past. It is an obvious truth that the past informs the present – our thrills and suspicions, our fears and joys, our attitudes to others and our freedoms.
Continued on the next page
Our members are drawn from a variety of backgrounds and all are welcome. As you might expect, many of them are ministers and members of Congregational churches – in Scotland, Wales and England.
Perhaps more surprisingly, many are drawn from the United Reformed Church and, in that respect, the CHS is a unifying body which happily defies denominational distinctions, with members from Baptist, Church of England, Methodist, Union of
Congregationalists all:
David Livingstone, Elsie Chulmleigh, Isaac Watts and John Bunyan
ECUmENiCal NEWS
The Conference of European Churches
The Congregational Federation is a member of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and I receive the CEC newsletter each week which has provided us with many interesting and informative articles.
A recent newsletter included the following:
ole of Rev Dr Antje Jackelén, Sweden’s first woman archbishop: “When Rev Dr Antje Jackelén became its first female archbishop in 2014, a major milestone was reached in the history of the Church of Sweden. It took 850 years and 69 male predecessors to get there. Jackelén also happens to be the first immigrant, at least in modern times, to occupy the highest chair of her
Learning from the past
The Magazine appears twice a year, in spring and autumn. It consists of news and views, various articles about individuals, churches and beliefs, of book reviews and other allied matters. All are free to submit contributions, whether they are CHS
I realise that our members and their friends may not always read every page of the Magazine with the closest attention, which is one reason why we also always include pages of correspondence, allowing our members to let off steam, in protest at what they do and don’t like in the Magazine and beyond it. Yet I trust that it contains enough for all tastes.
Recent issues have included articles on English refugee churches in 17th century Netherlands, on Congregationalism in Portsmouth, on Cambridge Congregationalism, on the hymns of Albert F Bayly (1901-1984), and on the crusading journalist William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) who drowned with The Titanic. If you wish to see for yourself please dip into our fully indexed archive of past issues up until 2017 at biblicalstudies.org.uk/articles_ congregational-history-circle-01.php.
Those with ideas for contributions to the Magazine should contact myself, Dr Alan Argent, (alan.argent1@btopenworld.com). I’m happy to discuss these and other relevant matters, as is also the CHS secretary, Dr Richard Cleaves (richard.cleaves1@gmail.com).
By Rev Ruth Leeming
church. That, however, she regards as a coincidence of lesser significance. For her, as a devoted Christian, the baptism matters more than the passport.”
Human Rights issues, as on the UN Human Rights Day of 10 December, European churches called for the implementation of the ‘UN Action Plan to Safeguard Religious Sites: In Unity and Solidarity for Safe and Peaceful Worship’.
News of the European Christian Environmental Network Assembly, which was of particular interest to me. The Assembly will be addressing the theme ‘Reconciled with Creation: a Call for Urgent Action on Climate and Biodiversity’ from 28 May to 2 June 2021 at the Evangelical Academy Bad Herrenalb, Germany.
If you are interested in CEC’s work the newsletters are posted on the CF website.
Continued from the previous page
From time to time joint publications with the United Reformed Church Historical Society have appeared (on the Coward Trust, on R W Dale of Birmingham, etc.) and these and other joint activities may well continue in the near future. We would be pleased to welcome new members. The annual subscription, which covers two issues of the Magazine, is still only £5. If you are interested, please contact our treasurer, Revd Chris Damp at Bunyan Meeting, Mill Street, Bedford MK40 3EU. The Congregational History Society’s Library is also located at present at Bunyan Meeting.
None of you, I am sure, will need me to tell you, but it may be worth saying that you are all even now playing a small part in creating history. How does the Holy Spirit work through your experience of life in your own setting, as Congregationalists have always maintained is crucial for your decision-making?
In the future, people will be studying you and your friends to learn how you responded to the challenges confronting you. For instance, how did British Congregationalists in 2020 and 2021 cope with the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic? That’s a question scholars and students will be asking in ten years’ time. We should do well to discover how our forebears responded to the challenges facing them.
God bless you.
CONGREGaTIONaL
FEDERaTION aND THE UNITED REFORMED CHURCH
Reflections, stories and hopes –do you have a story?
Fifty years ago, the United Reformed Church and the Congregational Federation were formed. Together we are intending to publish a book to mark our significant anniversary and we would love you to contribute a positive reflection or story of encouragement from then or now and with an eye to the future.
Writing brief:
Reflect on a memory from or since that time. Tell us about how you have worshipped and served with a local URC or CF church.
Share with us a hope for the future that is on your heart.
Share a photograph from your story with a caption (please ensure permission has been given to share).
Level/style: non-academic, everyday language.
Formatting: Please supply your text in a word document, keeping the formatting as minimal as possible. If possible, please include any picture as a separate file.
Quotation: Please do not quote from any prayers, poems or songs that are still in copyright.
Deadline: 31 May 2021.
Please include:
Short title (1-5 words)
Reflection/Story or Hope of 400-450 words
Your name and church (as well as Area or Synod)
A picture or image with copyright permission Send to: admin@congregational.org.uk or communications.pa@urc.org.uk
If sending an electronic copy is not possible, or you would like to chat about your contribution, please phone one of these people:
Andy Jackson 020 76919865
Yvonne Campbell 07710 089984
5 March 2021: BUILD ON a STRONG FOUNDaTION
By Eva Maudsley, Wavertree Congregational Church Secretary
Women of the Republic of Vanuatu (in the South Pacific Ocean) have prepared the 2021 service. Women, men and children of all ages are called to ‘Build on a strong foundation’ and live in unity, love and peace in the context of ethnic and cultural diversity, like Vanuatu and so many other places around the world.
The Y-shaped group of islands nearly 2,000 miles east of Northern Australia were discovered in 1606 by the Spanish. Captain Cook named the islands the New Hebrides. Following independence in 1980, the islands were renamed Vanuatu and a flag was adopted.
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 80 beautiful tropical isles extending 560 miles from north to south, 65 of which are inhabited. The black and white sandy beaches, coral reefs with coloured fishes, lovely birds, fruits and nuts in the forest all make the islands a pristine environment, but they are vulnerable to frequent tropical storms, earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis and active volcanoes.
Most of the people of Vanuatu are of Melanesian descent, with Polynesians in the outlying islands. Bislama is widely spoken, though there are hundreds of local languages, and French and English are the official languages.
Education is not compulsory or free. Most families can only afford to educate their firstborn child and boys used to get priority. However, the gender gap in literacy and education has narrowed. Maternal and infant mortality is still high, with malnutrition being the most common cause of death in children under five. Processed Western foods are exacerbating the problem.
On the World Day of Prayer website there are free resources to download for teenagers, a children’s activity sheet and resources for leaders of children’s groups. Much more very interesting background information about Vanuatu can be found in the colourful special edition of Together in Prayer magazine, issue 38 (£3).
2021 resources can be viewed and ordered at: www.wwdp.org.uk
The cover of the 2021 World Day of Prayer booklet
World Day of Prayer Service – Friday
al
What can you buy with five pence?
By Rev Chris Gillham, International Affairs representative
At the beginning of the year, I received a cheering email from the staff in the CF office. They had just banked nearly £30 for Christian Rebuild – the Congregationalist charity that supports community outreach projects in ‘second-world’ countries.
This money, combined with generous donations from churches and individual Congregationalists around Britain, will make such a difference to our friends in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Recently, donations have gone to Greece and Albania. Lebanon received the most, with a magnificent sum raised to offer help after the terrible explosion in Beirut. And Syria has not been forgotten.
go. It was raised by the collection of five pence pieces in our ‘Give us Five’ appeal for Syrian children. Those little coins can add up to so much!
of Syria do such a lot for children and, indeed, for the whole of their communities. They help with orphanages, have schools in Aleppo and Damascus, and run vocational training courses. These latter saw, in their most recent graduation, young people trained as beauticians, hairdressers, mobile maintenance
engineers, electricians, screen printers, pastry cooks, chefs, tailors and seamstresses. A business start up scheme is operated to help them get established.
At the other end of the age-range there has been help for the elderly through a special programme of medical and humanitarian assistance. For the frailest, there is a loving and caring nursing home.
In the war, the whole community benefited from water and food distribution. Now, in a different kind of war, special covid-19 hygiene kits are being distributed to the needy.
The churches were there throughout the war, giving support to the community and maintaining vibrant faith-filled worship. Now, with similar vigour and faith, they are at the forefront of the rebuilding of society.
One of their latest ventures is a tree planting scheme which aids the fight against global warming and helps to restore beauty to shattered cities.
Five pence pieces can contribute so much good. Please remember to save yours for Syria and, at a time when we have to rely more on plastic and see fewer coins, perhaps you could think how many you would have had and send an equivalent donation to Christian Rebuild, showing your love for your brothers and sisters in other lands.
Tree planting in Beirut, bringing beauty back to war-shattered streets
Cytun
Eglwysi Ynghyd yng Nghymru/ Churches Together in Wales
By Rev Chris Gillham, Cytun representative
Never has our membership of Cytun been more useful to the churches of the Congregational Federation in Wales than during this year of lockdown.
As the body representing the Welsh churches, Cytun has constant access to the Senedd and the Welsh Government. It is consulted with regard to policy decisions and has been constant in helping churches to understand and work with the requirements of lockdowns.
The Policy Officer, Rev Gethin Rhys, has worked untiringly to bring us the latest information and is always available to help churches with specific queries. He has arranged several Zoom question and answer sessions where church representatives can put specific questions to civil servants and Government officials. Rev Carys Butler has represented us on these occasions.
All the usual Cytun meetings have gone on to Zoom. Where would we be without it? But there is hope that, by the summer, some face to face events will be held. Both the Royal Welsh Show and the National Eisteddfod have indicated that they plan to go ahead. If this is the case, Cytun will arrange for large ecumenical tents where the active life of the churches will be displayed to the large numbers who attend. Should you be one of them, do drop in.
One Cytun-organised event that I always enjoy is the annual ‘Welcome to Wales’ course where I teach the history section, leading a tour of the National Museum of History at St Fagans. In 2020 it had to go online and the tour was abandoned, but we shall hope to have the tour and the visit to the Senedd back in the programme for October 2021. The course is for ministers who are moving to Wales for the first time and gives a wonderful introduction to the country. Don’t forget to sign up if you are tempted to cross the border and serve in the most beautiful country in the world!
Cytun has many more functions than just those I have described and, of course, there are numerous local Cytuns who encourage churches to pool their strength in supporting each other in worship and serving their local communities.
Working with Christian friends is a joy and the friendly leadership offered by the Chief Executive, Rev Aled Edwards, encourages trust and understanding.
The International Congregational Fellowship
By Rev Janet Wootton, ICF Representative and Past President
The Congregational Federation was a founding member of the International Congregational Fellowship, formed in 1977, “for mutual counsel and the sharing of Christian fellowship and service”. Since our inception, we have held four-yearly conferences, plus symposia and smaller meetings, in different countries all over the world.
The theme of our most recent conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa, was Called to Freedom. Speakers included Rev Leon Klate, the minister of a self-governing village established for freed enslaved people called Pniel, and Professor John de Gruchy, a signatory to the 1987 Kairos Document calling for freedom from apartheid, who helped shape post-apartheid South Africa. During the conference we had the chance to visit Pniel, and also cross to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and where he wrote what became his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
We were, of course, planning to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Pilgrims (1620) with a conference in 2020 in New England, but the pandemic intervened. I hope you have taken the opportunity to view the MayflowerFest resource on the CF website (see Events and Opportunities). If not, please do!
Our plans for 2021 are still uncertain as I write this, but please keep 22-27 July free. Whether or not we hold a face to face conference, there will be exciting online events at some points during those dates as well as throughout the year. These will include international speakers on the Mayflower, the Plymouth Settlement, and the life of both Settlers and First Nations; plus a chance to worship, study and enjoy fellowship with our global community.
We hope you will also be able to gather in your own local church to participate in online presentations, and be part of the International Congregational Fellowship, in ways that haven’t been possible before!
Other planned online resources and events include interviews with congregational Christians serving God in different parts of the world and short presentations from them. Watch out for these – or, even better, suggest topics or people who might contribute to the global conversation! And The International Congregational Journal, published by the ICF Theological Commission, is going online for the next two editions, with news and articles from around the world.
If you are interested in finding out more, visit: internationalcongregationalfellowship.org or contact yvonne.campbell@congregational.org.uk or revjwootton@btconnect.com.
The United Service in Cardiff to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of Martin Luther
One of the main sessions at the ICF Conference
Robben Island prison, where Nelson Mandela was held
Rev Janet Wootton
Stellenbosch University, venue for the ICF Conference
Train your brain or just take a relaxing time out with these puzzles. The solutions are on the inside of the back cover (don’t cheat!).
Crossword
Clues across
1. Sir Desmond ---- , South African theologian (4)
3. These may be eaten as part of your meals (8)
9. Scene of a World War 1 battle (5)
10. Bible book (7)
11. Draw (3)
12. ‘Here I raise my ---- ‘ (hymn) (8)
14. The Bible book that begins ‘Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus’ (6)
16. First name of Miss Marple’s creator (6)
19. Seaside resort in eastern England (8)
21. King who had diseased feet when he was old (3)
23. This kind of cheque still remains valid (7)
24. Became less serious or severe (5)
25. Sudden or great misfortune (8)
26. The Bible has this final word (4)
Wordsearch
Can you find 22 Old Testament books within this wordsearch?
Clues down
1. New Testament Lydia was from this city (8)
2. Age of Aaron when Moses was born (5)
4. ‘Then Peter stood up with the ---- ‘ (6)
5. Root vegetable (5)
6. ‘Angels in bright ---- rolled the stone away’ (hymn) (7)
7. Common name for the chemical compound NaCl (4)
8. Behind a ship (6)
13. Susan ---- , American actress and activist (8)
15. Historical emperors of Japan (7)
17. Seal between two metal faces (6)
18. Office held by Mr Bumble in ‘Oliver Twist’ (6)
20. ‘Enter his ---- with thanksgiving’ (5)
21. State in north-eastern India (5)
22. ‘ ---- lang syne’ (song) (4)
Sudoku
REviEWS aNd RESOURCES
Strangers and Pilgrims on
the Earth
Michael AG Haykin, Roy M Paul with John Clements (Editors)
Reviewer: John Balls, MA (Cantab), Old Meeting House, Norwich. Writer and lecturer.
In the final sentence of his ‘Afterword’ Michael Haykin, Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky, writes: “The landing of the Pilgrims is still of central significance as a key point in the history of the Christian faith and more generally Western culture.” If proof were needed of the truth of this statement, this book supplies it.
The three editors have persuaded 13 other scholars to contribute essays which cover a wide range of topics illustrating this important event. An added bonus is an introductory chapter by the late Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He urges us to study “one of the great epic stories of all history”, which involves “men of character and strength, conviction and stature.” To ensure that they are not forgotten, Priscilla Wong writes about ‘The Pilgrim Mothers’ – “women remembered for their incredible courage, strength and endurance in the midst of extraordinary circumstances”.
It is inevitable that a project which involves so many different writers will lead to a certain amount of overlap, and there are occasions when there seems to be a somewhat tenuous connection between individuals such as Francis Johnson and the actual Mayflower pilgrims. These caveats, however, are of minor importance in the light of the value of this book.
What I found most enjoyable was the insight provided by the writers into the remarkable characters in this godly adventure: the indefatigable William Brewster, the great communicator William Bradford, and Edward Winslow, whose faith in God as “our Shield and Supporter” shines out.
Published by H&E Publishing, RRP £27.99. Available on Amazon or email John Clements direct: john@drjohnclements.com
Seeking Allah. Finding Jesus: A devout Muslim encounters Christianity
Nabeel Qureshi Reviewer: Adrian Burr, Minister at Stambourne Congregational
I was presented with this book and wondered what was coming! Not often you get offered a book about Islam! But this was to be very different.
It is written from Nabeel ‘s life journal and so is in the first person – and records the conversations he has along the way. It is an interesting journey. Like many who look to come to faith, he seeks proof – first for Christianity, and then for the faith he was brought up in.
He records the answers that he finds, which will help anyone who encounters someone of the Muslim faith. So we have in this book the juxta-position of analysis of both the Muslim worldview and the Christian worldview from the view point of someone who found it extremely difficult to accept that anything but the Muslim faith could be true!
The book is very readable, with stories and discussions that lead you into the life of a man who is
Voices out of lockdown
Church
funny and mischievous but also very academically able. Sadly, he died of cancer in September 2017 aged only 33, leaving a wife and daughter.
As Nabeel was brought up in the UK and USA by parents of Pakistani background – his father was Pakistani and his mother was born in Indonesia of Pakistani parents – we have a wonderful mix of cultures. But the main tension is between Western culture that accepts we all have a right to question, and Islamic culture that believes older people are to be revered and believed.
This book is a good read, and helps Christians and Muslims on the journey to understanding the truth!
Published by Zondervan. Available on Eden at £14.97 or Amazon
Jan Sutch Pickard (ed) Reviewer: Emma Hunnable, Community Pastor, Woodham Ferrers Chapel
I was given this book for Christmas and I have found it such a blessing. Written by members and associates of the Iona Community, it’s a small book with around 73 pages and a simple font that is easy to read. It’s lovely to pick up with a cuppa and dip in and out of.
None of the material in the book was commissioned; it represents what a handful of people were moved to write in response to the pandemic. All the writers are from different backgrounds with different experiences. Some of the articles were originally shared in the Iona
Community online magazine before it was decided to print them in this book.
It is hard to describe such a beautiful book as you will only experience its impact by reading it. For me personally, it eloquently sums up the many thoughts and feelings I have wrestled with and continue to wrestle with throughout this pandemic, and it will be a reminder of those for years to come.
Published by Wild Goose Publications, £7.99
If you have been encouraged by a book, website, music album, app, video, course or any resource you feel would help others in their faith and ministry, do send it to us for consideration for the next issue. Write up to 300 words. Email it to the Editor by 20 August at: a.halloway@ntlworld.com
Congregational Federation Opportunities
CHuRCHES SEEkING MINISTERS
The following churches are seeking ministers/pastors at the present time. If you are interested in receiving more information you must firstly contact the Congregational Federation via our Nottingham office.
Full-time – Witney (South West Midlands).
Part-time – Dereham: Cowper Memorial (Eastern); Elstow Bunyan Christian Fellowship (East Midlands); Shillington (East Midlands); Stalybridge (North West).
Non-stipendiary – Frampton (South West Midlands); Oban Congregational Church (Scotland); Ebenezer Independent Congregational Chapel, Tredegar, Gwent (Wales).
For more information, in the first instance, please contact our General Secretary, Yvonne Campbell.
Social media & website support for churches
The Congregational Federation seeks to support all its churches in areas of social media and the internet in order to help them with their work and witness, and the Federation’s social media and websites provide the ideal platform for sharing news of its work and witness.
In 2020, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Federation established a tech meet up where people could come together and seek help and support from the CF for technical questions and challenges they were facing. It also provided a time of fellowship where successes could be shared and encouragement gained. Whilst initially meeting once a week, this has now moved to meeting once a month on the first Thursday at 1pm.
The CF continues to support churches wanting to establish or improve their internet presence. We are able to walk churches through the stages needed to set things up, including help with design and choosing a software partner, and training and ongoing
support. Not every church has the ability to set up and maintain a website, and the CF still has an individual webpage for each CF church on its own website, which can include plenty of additional details.
Alongside its main website, the CF maintains the Resource Hub. We recognise the importance of resources that can support churches in their ministry and mission. There are times when we all need to be pointed in the right direction for something to bring a moment of clarity to our church services, projects and outreach. In the Resource Hub we hope to bring together a rich diversity of resources to equip faith journeys, including resources written by ourselves and resources found on a multitude of other sites. Some are specifically Congregational but most are gathered from the wider Christian community –resources that we hope will enhance and enrich church life.
The strapline for the Hub is ‘Inspiration for you and your church’. We seek other ways to inspire too. One way we have done this is in the form of our Life Light and A Secluded Place reflections that are published during Advent and Lent. A small group of writers put down thoughts on different themes and topics, and these are shared daily on their websites, by email and on Facebook. They have been greatly appreciated by many in our churches and are eagerly anticipated.
There are many other ways in which technical support is shared in the CF and its churches, in different campaigns and projects. Please do get in touch if you have a question or need some support.
Neil Chappell, Social Media & Website Officer neil.chappell@congregational.org.uk
‘What a friend we have in Jesus – all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer’
MARCH
Matthew 21: 22
Jesus said: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
During March please pray for the Congregational Federation. Pray for its’ Officers, Staff and all who serve in an employed or voluntary capacity, as they seek to serve God. Pray too for all who serve our Area churches in employed and voluntary capacities.
During Lent remember how Jesus resisted temptation and was faithful to God – let us pray for help to follow his example.
APRIL
John 17: 20
Jesus said: “My prayer is not for the believers alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”
During April please pray for the Congregational churches in Scotland
During Easter remember how Jesus suffered and pray for all those we know who are suffering. Pray too for all those who work in the NHS or have caring roles in Nursing homes or in the community.
MAY
Acts 2: 42
The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
During May please pray for the churches of the Congregational Federation churches in Wales. As we celebrate Pentecost pray that the Holy Spirit will touch and bless all our churches. We pray for new ways of reaching out to those in need and sharing the Good news of Jesus.
We pray too for the May Assembly online and all who will organise and gather.
JuNE
Matthew 6: 9-13
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.”
During June please pray for the churches in the East Midlands and North East Areas of the Congregational Federation. Remember this month all those
suffering as a result of the COVID19 pandemic –those who have had the virus, those who mourn the loss of loved ones, those on the front line fighting the virus, those who have worked to produce a vaccine.
JuLY
Psalm 66: 20
Praise be to God, he has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
During July please pray for the churches in the Eastern and North West Areas of the Congregational Federation.
Pray for those in ministry within our churches. Pray for the numerous people who serve God in their local church. Pray for those who serve as Chaplains in our communities. Hospitals, Schools, Prisons and the Military.
AuGuST
Acts 4: 24
They raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.”
During August please pray for the churches in the North West Midlands and South East Areas of the Congregational Federation
During this summer month please pray for all the children who have been affected by the virus and had their education disrupted. May summer provide a time of rest and recuperation for families.
Remember the teachers and all employed in the emergency services who have worked throughout this pandemic in order to support and care for others.
SEPTEMBER
Matthew 7: 7-8
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
During September please pray the churches in the South West and South West Midlands Areas of the Congregational Federation.
We pray for those who are struggling with life be it financial problems, abuse, unemployment, anxiety or stress. We pray too for all those who grieve the loss of loved ones.
Word search
Amos
Daniel
Esther
Exodus
Ezra
Haggai
Hosea
Isaiah
Job
Joel
Jonah
Joshua
Judges
Kings
Malachi
Micah
Nahum
Numbers
Psalms
Ruth
Samuel
Zephaniah
‘Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.’