Shermara Fletcher – one of the Christians on this year’s Buxton Leadership Programme – is part of a pioneering chaplaincy team at the new London Design and Engineering University Technical College. The College is a secondary school next door to the University of East London in Beckton, and has a particular focus on technical and scientific subjects.
In this blog, our Development Director, Tim Thorlby highlights a major milestone reached on our first social investment project.
The London Missional Housing Bond was first launched in early 2013 as a pilot. After 3 years of work, and two Bond issues, we have now raised nearly £1m of capital for missional housing in London and provided two growing churches in London with missional properties to support their work.
A Word from our Chaplain, Sr Josephine Canny OA, as we prepare to enter the season of Advent …
“You know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed ….” (Romans 13.11).
The Church invites us during this Advent Season to “hold ourselves ready” for the coming of the “Son of Man” – an expression that Jesus used when speaking of Himself. He insists there is no way of telling when this time will be, so the only attitude we can have is “to hold ourselves ready”.
Last night, Selina Stone (Director of our William Seymour Programme) was one of the speakers at an event at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation entitled ‘Trump and Brexit: What’s your take?’ The event began with reflections by Selina and by Giles Fraser, and in this blog she shares her reflections, and the way forward…
I am going to reflect on the impact that these two political moments have had on a range of levels, from the personal to the global: the disturbance of ‘progress’, the exposure of prejudice and the revelation of a shallow democracy.
Last month our Chaplain Sr Josephine and Co-ordinating Fellow Fr Simon Cuff both attended a conference on ‘Priesthood in a great world city’. On the opening night, Sr Josephine offered her reflections on priesthood from a Roman Catholic religious perspective. Fr Simon reflects on what he learned about priesthood in London and what impact the ordained priesthood has on the ‘priesthood’ and ‘praxis’ of all believers.
Living Wage Week runs from Sunday 30th October to Saturday 5th November. CTC Director Angus Ritchie blogs on the ways your church can get involved…
The Living Wage Campaign has had a huge impact on the lives of low-income families, putting over £200,000 extra in the pockets of people in poverty and helping at least 45,000 low paid workers and their families. From being dismissed as ‘impractical’ and ‘unrealistic’, it has now grown into a national movement supported by the leaders of all the main political parties, implemented by the Mayor of London, and recognised as having a robust business case by companies such as Barclays Bank and KPMG.
Selina Stone directs CTC’s William Seymour Programme – increasing the engagement of Pentecostal churches in community organising. Here she and CTC Director Angus Ritchie blog about their recent seminar on Pentecostalism, Power and Community Organising.
Last Tuesday,we visited the University of Roehampton at the invitation of Dr Andrew Rogers to present a paper to his postgraduate Research Group in Ministerial Theology. It was an exciting opportunity to engage with a group involved in both reflection and action on the issues we were exploring.
Josh Richards – one of CTC’s new Buxton interns – blogs on an unusual piece of political negotiation in Hoxton…
A crowd had gathered in the hall of St John’s, Hoxton to watch a special presentation as part of the church’s harvest shared lunch. Our special guest was addressed by Vera, a member of the congregation: “In light of your success in the Hackney Game of Thrones, we want to present you with a throne of your own”.
Dressed as a knight, seven-year-old Lewis emerged to present Phil Glanville (the newly elected mayor of Hackney) with the aforementioned throne. It was a fetching toilet seat. Amidst applause and laughter, a slightly bemused mayor posed with Lewis for photographs.
Francesca Webster and Dunstan Rodrigues (pictured) describe an exciting project about vocation that emerged from this year’s CTC Summer Internship – and invite you to get involved…
Moving from one stage of life to another can be extremely challenging. The future appears scary and unstable; pursuing one’s passion feels too risky; status and security are very luring. It is easy to be swayed in different and conflicting directions by the pressures of friends and family. Very few, if any, people listen without giving advice that confuses more than it illuminates.
Recently, Durham University hosted a conference aimed at Christians working to tackle credit and debt problems in communities across the UK. Andy Walton blogs for us on the work being done…
There’s something uniquely encouraging about knowing you’re not on your own. Being surrounded by people fighting the same fight is good not only from the point of view of sharing information and tactics, but possibly even more importantly, the impetus and energy gained from finding out there are others in the same battle is vital.
This was brought home to me recently when surrounded by people from churches across the country who’d got together at a conference in Durham to discuss their work in tackling personal debt, creating better forms of credit and innovating within a system which still allows far too many people to fall through the cracks and into crisis situations.
