Introducing our new Lent book

Community Organising, Prayer l January 12, 2014

Centre Director Angus Ritchie blogs on his new Lent book, written with Paul Hackwood. Just Love: Personal and Social Transformation in Christ costs £8.99 – or £5.15 on Kindle. You can view the cover here and a sample chapter here.

The Kindle version is online now, and hard copies can be ordered from manoj@instantapostle.com or Amazon. There are discounts for bulk purchases (20% off for 20+ copies, 25% off for 50+ and 30% off for 100+).

The last year has seen two exciting developments for Christians committed to social justice. They make it an excellent time to launch a book on the personal and social aspects of transformation in Christ.

Some festive good news for “Just Money”

Community Organising, Just Money l December 22, 2013

David Barclay is the Centre’s Faith in Public Life Officer, and co-ordinates our work with Citizens UK on the Just Money campaign against exploitative lending.

Here he blogs on some Advent action in Hackney to get the Council to clamp down on adverts for payday loans – after the campaign’s recent success in Tower Hamlets.

A delegation of 20 leaders from Hackney Citizens has presented a petition to the Council calling for a ban on payday loan adverts from billboards and bus shelters in the Borough. The petition, which gathered over 850 signatures, was presented to Cabinet member Jonathan McShane with a distinct Christmas theme, complete with Santa, wrapping and carols.

Cantignorus Chorus, a Church of England Project, aims for the Christmas Charts with one of the UK’s most surprising choirs.

SingSpire l December 17, 2013

Tom Daggett – who co-ordinates CTC’s SingSpire project – blogs on its “Cantignorus Chorus,” one of the choirs which he directs, and on its anthem of hope, ‘Holding out a helping hand’

Few things bring people hope better than singing with others. This is particularly true when faced with tumultous lifestyles, cycles of depression, and a sense of helplessness.

The Cantignorus Chorus set out to do precisely that – bring joy to people who’ve been given a rough time. It sought to do it by making a national statement of hope, by learning and recording ‘Holding out a helping hand’, penned by Rev Niall Weir of St. Paul’s West Hackney.

Shoreditch, Jedi Knights and the Meaning of Life

Shoreditch Group l December 16, 2013

In this Blog, our Development Director Tim Thorlby delves into the Census to explore some of the evidence about one of East London’s fastest growing religious groups – the one without any religion at all….

Recently, the Anglican Bishop of Stepney circulated a weighty tome of data about his area in east London – the Stepney Contextual Survey 2013. His researcher has pulled together lots of about the Stepney Area – Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets – and painted a statistical picture of this deprived and diverse area and how it is changing. It is certainly not light bedtime reading, but it contains some fascinating observations.

Campaigns come & go, relationships endure

Community Organising, Just Money l November 29, 2013

As part of our Buxton Leadership Programme, Selina Stone is working for CTC as a church-based Community Organiser in Lambeth – focussing on the Just Money Campaign with Citizens UK. She is based at St John’s Church, Angell Town, working with the Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett.

In this extract from God and the Moneylenders – our new collection of essays – Selina describes her first two months of organising.

Upon arrival in Lambeth I spent the first two weeks conducting research that would allow me to gain an understanding of the financial situations in Brixton and Streatham. Over recent years, these two areas in the Borough have become increasingly occupied by payday lenders.

Another win for the ‘Just Money’ campaign!

Community Organising, Just Money l November 28, 2013

It has been quite a week for Citizens UK’s Just Money Campaign – run with in partnership with the Contextual Theology Centre.

David Barclay – our Faith and Public Life Officer, who co-ordinates the campaign – blogs on its latest, very local achievement.

The Just Money campaign has notched up another win! Just a few days after the Government’s momentous decision to cap the cost of credit, the Tower Hamlets team have persuaded their local Council to ban payday loan adverts from as many public places as possible.

The best of days to launch our new report!

Community Organising, Contending Modernities, Just Money, Research l November 26, 2013

David Barclay, the Centre’s Faith in Public Life Officer, blogs on our latest report, which he has co-edited with our Director, Angus Ritchie.

As he explains, the report on exploitative lending has been launched on the very best of days, as our Just Money campaign with Citizens UK celebrated a historic victory!

Yesterday the Government announced that they would be capping the cost of credit, bringing to an end the unrestricted interest rates and penalty fees currently charged by payday lenders. Today it has emerged that the Archbishop of Canterbury played a key role in this decision. So it is a very good time to announce CTC’s latest publication – ‘God and the Moneylenders: faith and the battle against exploitative lending’.

Cantignorus Chorus raises the roof at Angel Studios

SingSpire l November 26, 2013

The Cantignorus Chorus – part of the Centre’s SingSpire programme – recorded the song which it hopes will be a Christmas Number One! Our Community Music Co-ordinator Tom Daggett blogs about a memorable evening, the climax of many weeks’ hard work

UPDATE: You can buy the single here

Last Wednesday evening, the Cantignorus Chorus made history when it travelled a few miles down the road to make its debut recording at Angel Studios – a prestigious studio used by the likes of Robbie Williams, Tom Jones, and the X Factor finalists.

Gangs and Street Violence: theology, practice and the local Church

Community Organising, Events, Research, The Centre for Theology & Community l November 18, 2013

Our Development Director Tim Thorlby blogs on what happened at the first of the Centre’s new programme of seminars for local church leaders.

The seminar tackled the challenge of ‘gangs and street violence’ and also saw the launch of our latest report Taking Back the Streets: Citizens’ responses to the 2011 riots.

On Tuesday 12^th November, the Centre welcomed a diverse group of local church leaders and practitioners from across London to take part in the first of our new programme of seminars on ‘Theology for the Local Church’. These seminars – which are hosted at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine in east London – aim to equip local churches with the latest theology and practice on a key issue and then to provide the space for discussion and reflection.

Churches, organising and “small ‘p’ politics”

Community Organising, Events l November 13, 2013

Today’s Church Urban Fund conference in East London has seen a powerful call by Archbishop Justin Welby for Christians to engage in politics – and Maurice Glasman praise community organising as an effective means of doing so. In this post, we look at some exciting events and publications which will equip local churches to put these ideas into practice.

CTC’s Senior Tutor refers to community organising as an example of “small ‘p’ politics” – seeking the good of the polis (city) in which God has placed us, in response to the command of the Bible (Jeremiah 29.7). Today, many of the CTC team are at the Church Urban Fund’s “Tackling Poverty Together” conference, in which Archbishop Welby and Lord Glasman (a Fellow of CTC) have called on local churches to engage in these kinds of “small ‘p’ politics”.

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