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Remember - 2010 Diocesan Missioners Conference. June 29 - July 2 in Merville, France

Edinburgh 2010: "Witnessing to Christ today"

It's almost a hundred years since the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910. The Edinburgh 2010 project intends to make the anniversary relevant and helpful to the churches worldwide but also at national, regional and local parish level. More at http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/home.html

The planning team writes:

Different from 1910

In important ways the celebration of Edinburgh 2010 and the process leading towards it will be different from the Edinburgh 1910 Conference.

• Rather than being centred in Edinburgh, a polycentric approach is being taken, both for the study process and for 2010 events which will take place in many locations around the world including Edinburgh.
• Whereas 1910 was confined to mainline Protestantism, the participants in 2010 are drawn from the whole range of Christian traditions and confessions, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Independent Churches, and show a better gender and age balance.
• Instead of being confined to the North Atlantic, there is an intentional bias to the South, recognising that Christianity's centre of gravity has moved markedly southwards during the past century. The process aims to be truly worldwide in its scope.

Intended Outcomes of Edinburgh 2010

• Churches will be provided with an opportunity to celebrate what God has done in the growth of the Church worldwide over the past century and to prayerfully commit to God the witness of the churches in the 21st century.
• The biblical call to mission will be affirmed and articulated within our contemporary contexts with particular focus on the meaning of evangelization and relevance of Christian witness today.
• A key conversation on mission will be initiated with mission leaders from the older mission movements of the North and the new mission movements from the South and East, with dialogues held among representatives of different Christian traditions.
• Guidelines will be developed and studies published to help church and mission leaders evaluate for their own situation models of mission which are proving effective elsewhere.
• Networks will be mobilized and alliances formed so as to develop greater strategic collaboration and greater synergy in fulfilling the mission mandate.
• Based on a critical assessment of the status of the world, a new vision of God's purposes for creation in Christ and a renewed spirituality and mission ethos will be developed in the life of the churches worldwide.
• Centenary celebrations of witnessing to Christ today will be held throughout the world - with the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, again, being the venue on 6 June 2010 for the historic celebration involving over 1000 delegates. 

Fresh Expressions national event with the Archbishop of Canterbury, March 2010

From the FE press office:

Archbishop: What next for Fresh Expressions of Church?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to be the keynote speaker at a national event in Lincoln which will focus on the long-term development of fresh expressions of church. 

The event - hosted by Fresh Expressions at the Epic Centre, Lincolnshire Showground - will take place on 5 March 2010. The Archbishop will be looking at growth to spiritual maturity, while the day will also help those leading new congregations to find out more about such key issues as finance, accountability and sustainability.

The day aims to examine the theme of local shared ecumenical support and ownership, and how this is developed through FEASTs (Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams).

Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops’ Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, said that Lincoln was a particularly appropriate venue because of the successful work being done across the county in establishing pioneering forms of church.

“Some people have said fresh expressions of church are just the latest fad,” he added, “but the Lincoln experience proves otherwise. There are good signs of church growth there, and it was the first area of the UK to develop a county-wide ecumenical FEAST. The rest of us have much to learn from the work in Lincolnshire.” 

The conference is open to anyone interested in reaching those normally well off the Church’s radar with a regional, inter-denominational and co-ordinated approach to mission and evangelism. Tickets are £25 and can be booked at  www.freshexpressions.org.uk/training/lincoln

Changing the landscape:fresh expressions and the long term will run from 11am to 4pm (refreshments and registration from 10.30am). It will be held at The Epic Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA.

Further details will appear on the Fresh Expressions website nearer the time (www.freshexpressions.org.uk).

Sharing of Ministries Abroad

SOMA UK director Stephen Dinsmore (Chelmsford's previous diocesan missioner) sends the latest info: 

 Download SHARING Autumn 2009 final 

More at www.somauk.org

Research request from Helen Wordsworth

Can you help Helen, or pass on her request for help? She writes:

I wonder if you could help me with my research? I'm doing a study on holistic mission interventions on behalf of local churches, with a particular focus on Anglican and Baptist ones.

I need to ask incumbents of Anglican churches if they would mind spending a few minutes filling in the on-line survey which can be reached on this link;

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oEmpnHC5VbMvY3DpOx2jSg_3d_3d

 

Please could you cut and paste the link and send it in an email request to the incumbents that you are in touch with?  I need as many as possible in order to make it worthwhile, so if you could also circulate this request to other Anglican missioners that would be excellent.   The time limit at which I will be collecting the responses and terminating the survey is three weeks from now. 

Rooted in Jesus

Alison Morgan sends the latest bulletin from her cross-cultural teaching initiative.

Download RinJ report Oct 09 (and for more see here)

Dear friends

Please find attached a report on this year's Rooted in Jesus ministry. It has been another exciting year, with the usual sense of watching God at work and trying to keep up. We have managed it - just - and are looking forward to 2010. We already have visits planned to dioceses in Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Angola.

You will find lots more information, and pictures, in the attached report. As ever we are profoundly grateful to you all for your support and involvement in this ministry.

Fresh Expressions update

Three nuggets of news from Norman Ivison:

1.
Fresh Expressions now have a new logo. If you would like a copy for any websites or publications please contact ben.clymo@freshexpressions.org.uk 

2.
The November Fresh Expressions podcast (available 1/11/09) looks at why a fresh expression didn’t work in Somerset, visits a Christian community in York which worships in the crypt of the Minster and learns about discipleship in a fledgling congregation in the West Midlands.  http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/podcast

3.
Fresh Expressions’ latest DVD, Sanctus is now available. Seven stories of fresh expressions in the sacramental tradition and a keynote address by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Price £12 and available from  www.freshexpressions.org.uk/shop

feig pioneer post - Gloucester diocese

Michael Volland pioneered this fresh expression of church before moving to teach at Cranmer Hall in the Summer. 

Please pass the details round interested people where you are: closing date is November 11. More details from Bishop John Went at bshptewk@star.co.uk

Download Statement of Needs for FEIG 2009

Fresh Expressions in Gloucester (Feig) Leader and Mission enabler

The diocese of Gloucester is seeking to appoint a person to work with the Feig community in shaping this exciting and innovative ministry over the next four years.  Feig is an emerging Anglican community based in Gloucester City centre, seeking to engage creatively with the city in a missional and contextual way

 

The successful candidate is likely to be an ordained person, but the diocese is open to the possibility of appointing someone to a title post

 

The successful candidate will be

 

• Interested in developing forms of church in the context of contemporary culture
• Rooted in the Anglican tradition and passionate about expressing church in creative and engaging ways
• Sensitive to the needs of an established group
• Able to offer spiritual and pastoral leadership for the Feig community, leading the community into a new stage of its life and self-understanding and to what extent Feig is a church
• Passionate about exploring new mission opportunities and developing new missional communities
• Enthusiastic about developing existing links between Feig and Gloucester Cathedral and also between Feig and the City Deanery
• Excited about working alongside others from a variety of theological backgrounds and eager to embrace a rich variety of worship styles

Further details and applications from the Diocese of Gloucester Web site: http://www.gloucester.anglican.org/about/jobs/index.php?jobid=49. 

Dean Martin and Uncle Sid's send-off

In the light of several recent disdainful and dismissive comments by clergy about modern culture and funerals, here's a positive and encouraging article from that source of essential reading for anyone interested in what lots of England actually thinks, the Daily Mail. 

(Seriously. If you have the word "mission" in your job title and your office doesn't buy and read the Mail, the Mirror and the Sun daily, please hand in your cards immediately - you elitist fraud.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1222301/Dean-Martin-fitting-send-Uncle-Sid.html

York Courses CD - Rowan Revealed

Another winner from the magnificent, indefatigable John Young:

ROWAN REVEALED 

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY on CD

On a brand new, not for profit CD entitled Rowan Revealed, the Archbishop of Canterbury talks frankly in a wide-ranging conversation with Canon John Young about … his life and faith, prayer, poetry, the press, politics, the future of the Church, his hopes and disappointments, ‘fresh expressions’, what Jesus means to him …

York Courses have given away 10,000 free copies to make the Archbishop’s words accessible to a wide audience. The Archbishop already appears on two of York Courses’ series of ecumenical Lent courses for study groups, which feature other well-known personalities such as actresses Patricia Routledge and Wendy Craig, Ann Widdecombe MP, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and General Sir Richard Dannatt.

Extract from Rowan Revealed:-

 

John Young:  Were you particularly pained or saddened by the fact that it was a Christian Prime Minister who took us to war?

Rowan Williams:  If I’m honest, yes. Yes I was. And I think it compounded the way in which in the Middle East and further afield people associate western military power with Christianity. So, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for example, you still have death threats against Christians and Christian institutions, premised on the idea that the United States or the UK have taken out a few terrorists –right, we will take out a few Christians in retaliation. It’s as crude as that. It’s utterly, utterly unrelated to the truth on the ground. But that’s the perception, and I think that’s been one of the worst legacies of this. That’s also why Christians have been victimised and persecuted in Iraq, and pushed out - ethnically cleansed really – it’s a dreadful story. 

Rowan Revealed is the latest in York Courses’ developing series of CD Conversations with eminent Christians, which include:

·      Nobel Prize winning climatologist, Professor Sir John Houghton CBE FRS on Climate Change and Christian Faith

·      Priest-scientist, John Polkinghorne KBE FRS, former Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University on Science and Christian Faith

York Courses was founded in 1997 to encourage ecumenical co-operation in small study groups by two Anglican priests (both Canons of York Minster) -John Young (best-selling Hodder author of Teach Yourself Christianity, with books in several languages) and Simon Stanley (former BBC Producer/Presenter). Every year more than 50,000 people worldwide gather around a York Course. 

Review copy and transcript available from York Courses now.

Extracts for publication – available in digital format.

Please contact Carrie Geddes for further details.

carrie.geddes@yorkcourses.co.uk

Tel: 01904 338107

Mob: 07792 272010 

The Turin Shroud and faith-sharing

George Fisher has this from Lichfield - interesting in the light of the impact made by the recent tour of the relics of Therese of Lisieux. Contact George if you want to know more: george.fisher@lichfield.anglican.org 

Details are here: Download Shroud of Turin Exhibition

In our Diocese, Pam Moon has one of the few replica copies of the Turin Shroud - we think it is the only one in this country. She has put it together as an exhibition which centres on the crucifixion - and resurrection. It has the potential to be amazingly evangelistic and this is how Pam wants it to be used. It could be used at missions, or for city centre churches etc.

I have attached the summary sheet of what she offers and it can also be found on the Lichfield web site:

http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/DynamicContent/Documents/Shroud%20of%20Turin.pdf