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Prayer diary: Day 2 of Lent

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As part of Call to Change, we are inviting supporters to pray each day for the work of the Church Urban Fund, the Contextual Theology Centre and their partner churches and projects
Tonight, Call to Change and CTC are sponsoring a Workshop on the Living Wage in Oxford.  This builds on the work staff and students in the University have been doing to secure a Living Wage for all it’s domestic staff – something which builds the London Citizens campaign which has won £70 million for low-paid workers in the capital alone.  Please pray for the event, for all involved in the campaign, and all who struggle on low incomes.
The Church Urban Fund is supporting St Chad’s Church, Kidderminster, as it reaches out to the local deprived community to tackle issues of loneliness and social deprivation. Pray for its plans to establish a coffee shop – to act as a hub to start groups (e.g. parenting groups, friendship groups for elderly or lonely people, debt counselling and Christian enquirers’ groups).

A warm invitation to Christian and Hindu leaders

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Hindu and Christian Leaders from across London and beyond are invited to a workshop on Saturday 3rd March. Taking place between 10am and 4pm and held at the Mile End Bengali Hindu temple, the workshop will explore how Hindu and Christian leaders can work together on common local issues. If you would like to take part in this conference or find out more, ring Tim on 020 77801600.

A great idea we’ve spotted…

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The Near Neighbours team is always on the lookout for great ideas coming from community groups in Eastern London and all around the as well. We recently heard about the FAN group in Wales and wanted to share a little about them. Read on to find out about an exciting initiative…

It was dusk and I was walking in the rain looking for the venue where the FAN meeting would take place – my first meeting. What exactly FAN was, I did not know but I knew that I was feeling very lonely and I needed company. A week earlier I was given a flyer saying “FAN Group meetings last about an hour and give all people an opportunity to meet in friendship. ANYONE friendly is welcome at a FAN Group. We`d like to meet you! There is no charge for attending. It`s a great way to make new friends!”

I needed very much to make new friends to overcome my loneliness and thought that trying FAN might help. I said to myself “I am a friendly person and I’m sure I will be OK.” That night the meeting was in a church hall. Today I know of FAN Groups that meet at cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, community centres and elsewhere.

FAN is a listening group. People sit in a circle to listen to each other. In turn we talk about ourselves, our week and a chosen subject. People speak only if they wish and the meeting finishes with a closing statement. The topic of the day can vary from pets, nature and childhood to grandparents, food and travelling.  Since 2003 in Cardiff more than 1,500 people from 68 different nationalities have attended FAN meetings and had the opportunity to meet local residents who have become friends.

If you want to find your local group, check out www.thefancharity.org or why not start one of your own?

First Sunday of Lent: reflections on the readings

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As part of the Call to Change initiative, the Jellicoe blog now has a weekly post on the forthcoming lectionary readings.  This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Mark 1.9-15

Right at the start of Jesus’ ministry, he faces a choice of direction.  Matthew and Luke tell us more about the temptations Jesus faces.  Satan urges Jesus to perform dramatic stunts, to get popularity and fame.  But Jesus’ mission is to be a servant king.
In Jesus, God becomes one of us – and so he must go through the struggles and the frustrations of human life. He comes alongside us with all the risk and suffering that involves.   He isn’t here to bowl people over with his wonders, to intimidate them by his power, but to love them into God’s Kingdom.
Lent is an opportunity for us to think about the direction of individual lives, and our common life.  It is a time to think about the ways in which we are shaped by the world around us – and the beliefs which actually animate our actions.
Do we live as if it is through suffering love – through the  way of the cross – that new life comes to the world?  Are we willing to become vulnerable, forgiving those who have caused us the deepest hurt, speaking the truth to the powerful even when they don’t want to hear it? 
Jesus path is not an easy one:  it doesn’t shirk conflict, but in the midst of conflict it remains a way of love.  It is, as we know, a demanding path.  Like our Lord, we face the temptations to an easier (perhaps more dramatic) path.  We cannot walk the way of Christ alone – which is why Lent is a time to draw closer to God, and to one another.

Prayers for Ash Wednesday and Lent

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As part of the Call to Change, the Contextual Theology Centre has produced the following prayers for churches to incorporate in their intercessions on Ash Wednesday or later in Lent.

The prayers ask God’s blessing and protection on those affected most deeply by the financial crisis, and ask for God’s grace in using the season well for individual and corporate repentance:

Father,
we give you thanks for this holy season of repentance and renewal.
We ask you for the grace to use it well
– to recognise the wrong turnings in our personal and common life;
– to turn to you for forgiveness and renewal
– to enthrone your Son as Lord, and live as citizens of his Kingdom

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer

Father,
we place into your hands those  who feel most keenly the effects of the financial crisis, 

in our own land and around the world,
and those who have lived in poverty for many years.
May they know Christ crucified as the One who suffers with them, and the one who comes with justice and with power.

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer

New course on faith and organising

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This week’s Church Times covers the launch of Call to Change – both the new website and the four-week CTC course has launched (for Lent but also for other times of year) on Scripture and community organising. The course was produced by the Centre’s partner churches in Citizens UK, the course has been trialled in its Anglican Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal and Salvation Army congregations.  It equips participants to engage in ‘listening campaigns’ in their area, and work with other local congregations and organisations on issues of common concern.

Secularism and Christianity: A Round-up of the Week

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Few weeks pass by with such an intense succession of stories about the relationship between Christianity and the state, and about the (a)political role of Christian values and practice.  Perhaps there is something to be said for new stories in quick succession; this week has not felt like the classic outworking of a set piece confrontation.  While the first story of the week, concerning prayer at Bideford council, showed all the promise of a standard set-piece conflict between secularism and the praying Christians, this story was quickly overtaken and cast in a changing light by subsequent events.  Here is a round-up of events this week, with some of the most thoughtful or agenda-shaping articles penned in their wake.

Bideford Council

Mr Justice Ouseley ruled that Bideford town council acted unlawfully by allowing prayers to be said at formal meetings.  Eric Pickles was among those quick to criticise the move, and the point was made by several commentators including Jonathan Chaplin that the ruling was in fact a setback for secularism rather than a success.  As Elizabeth Hunter of Theos suggests, the judgement perhaps showed more confusion about the nature of secularism than an enforcement of it.

Called to Change: Seeing God’s glory

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As part of the Call to Change initiative, the Jellicoe blog now includes a weekly post on the lectionary readings, and how they relate to the Gospel call to social transformation.


For the two Sundays leading up to Lent, the Church of England lectionary chooses special readings to prepare us for the season.


Last Sunday’s readings reminded us that God’s glory is found in engagement with, not evasion of, the material world.  In Christ, the divine life has ‘moved into the neighbourhood’, and so all aspects of life can reveal the glory of God.

That message is reinforced this week with the Gospel of the Transfiguration (Mark 9.2-9).  We are given a glimpse of our destination as Christians – as the glory of God shines out through Jesus Christ (something echoed in the Epistle, 2 Corinthians 4.3-6)

It is a particularly appropriate reading as we stand just days from Lent. The Transfiguration is like a ‘fast-forwarding’ of salvation: a moment, before Jesus begins his journey to crucifixion, where we glimpse the purpose of the cross.  The purpose is the salvation of all things – spiritual and material – so that the whole created order can shine forth with God’s mercy, love and glory.

We need these kinds of ‘mountain-top’ experiences as Christians – moments which lift the heart, and raise our vision beyond the daily grind to glimpse our destination.

Lent is a good time to take stock and re-balance our spiritual lives.  Do we spend too much time on the ‘mountain top’?  If so, we need to hear Jesus’ call to return down to the level ground – so that the glory we glimpse in worship and prayer becomes more of a reality in our relationships and our communities?  Or are we so ground down by our daily labours that we have lost our sense of perspective and direction?  If so, we may need to make more time in our lives to allow God to lift our hearts and raise our vision, as Jesus did on the mountain.

Called to Change: Putting relationships first

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As part of the Call to Change initiative, the Jellicoe blog now includes a weekly post on the lectionary readings, and how they relate to the Gospel call to social transformation.


For Roman Catholic churches, and others following the Revised Common Lectionary, the Gospel for next Sunday (19th February) is Mark 1.2-12.  

Seeing [the] faith [of his friends], Now some scribes were sitting there and they thought to themselves, “How can this man talk like that?  He is blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins but God?'”
Jesus…said to them, “Why do you have these thoughts in your heads?  Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk?’

The crowds have heard of wonder-workers before, and they have listened to teachers – but never have they known anyone to declare the forgiveness of sins.  That is in God’s power.

Jesus isn’t saying that physical illness is a sign that our relationship with God is wrong.  He explicitly denies that in other healings.  What he’s doing is moving from the physical issue this man faces to the spiritual issue we all face – the health of our relationship with God and neighbour.  And because he is God, he has the power to heal that relationship too, if we are willing to open our lives to his grace.

“My god is that which rivets my attention, centres my activities, preoccupies my mind and motivates my action.” (Luke Johnson)  Is it true in my life that “God is love” – or do I value things above people?  Is my prayer life with God focused on getting things from God – or deepening our relationship?  What ‘gods’ stand at the centre of our current economic system – and what would our economic and social order change if we placed relationships at their heart?

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