Learning & Development Newsletter
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Message from Tricia Mitchell
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Welcome to the Learning & Development Newsletter!
I often hear it said that the only constant in life is change, and the only certainty is death.
It is true that change is all around us – and some changes are more welcome than others! When the time came to close the chapel in the village I live in, I found it difficult. Hard to give up the physical presence. Challenging to visualise how we could continue to offer a welcome without the building. I realised that my theology had a lot to do with hospitality – conversations over food, sharing warmth in the space as well as being warm-hearted people.
When we closed the doors we moved worship down the road into a local disability home. There we were welcomed by the residents who were delighted when we took worship to them, as most could not easily go out to worship in traditional spaces. They offered us a home. We shared the gift of God’s love. I learned that hospitality is so much richer when we allow it to be two-way. From that place of ‘homeless’ vulnerability I have experienced grace in abundance. After death, resurrection. A short time into this new partnership, the manager of the hall expressed to the minister how the atmosphere there had changed! God’s grace is beyond our understanding.
We have been guests in our new home for twenty years now! I don’t miss having to take my place on the cleaning rota, sort out the insurance or pay the soaring utility bills! I would miss the new friends in our new home, the fellowship, the laughter, the tears and the stories of God that we share. The end of one chapter was a new beginning. Last year we made another new beginning – but I’ll save that tale for another day!
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This month our Methodist Way of Life focus is ‘open’.The practising of hospitality and generosity with open hearts and open minds. I am sure you have your own stories of how your church has offered a warm welcome within the walls or has gone out to spread God’s love. As many churches and circuits face changes I pray that we will all find new ways to be open, new ways to be generous in our communities as we reflect the abundance of God’s love to us.
Tricia Mitchell
Learning and Development Manager
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Living well with difference:
reconciliation and mediation team
Is
your congregation or circuit facing a time of change, tension or conflict? We
are here to help.
Representing the diversity of the
Church, our practitioners are here to help others approach disagreements and
conflicts in more positive, transformational ways, enabling communities to live
well with difference.
The
reconciliation and mediation team is offering mediation at no cost in the
following Districts: Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire; Bolton and
Rochdale; Cumbria; Chester and Stoke; East Anglia; Isle of Man; Lancashire;
Liverpool; Lincolnshire; London; Manchester and Stockport; Northampton;
Nottingham and Derby
We will be coming to other
Districts soon, but prior to that there will be a small cost. Please get in touch
and we can talk you through it.
To find out more email Katie Bradley, Methodist Way of Peace Programme Manager.
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Abundance of God’s creation is the
focus for the new Rainbow magazine and JMA Commissioning Service. You can now find new resources available to download
from the Methodist Church website.
Click here for more information.
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Let’s End Poverty – Write to
your MP
Tackling
poverty has to be a key issue at the next general election. With 1 in 5 people
across the UK struggling against poverty, we urgently need change for our
communities. That’s why the Methodist Church is a founding partner of the new
Let’s End Poverty movement, bringing people together in a movement for a UK
where poverty can’t hold anyone down.
Could you
get involved by writing to your MP? Our political leaders need to know that we
want tackling and ultimately ending poverty to be one of the top priorities for
the next government. Use our online action to send a letter to your MP asking
them to make sure the next general election marks the beginning of the end for
poverty in the UK.
Click here to
find your MP and send them an email.
Could you get a group together in your church to write to
your MP? Order a set of postcards to use as a group to write your messages to
your MP. Find everything here.
If your church would like to get more involved with Let’s
End Poverty, we’d love to have you involved. You can sign up as a Church here or email Hannah
Fremont-Brown if you want to talk about getting more involved.
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Volunteering for 3Generate was launched on Monday 12th February There are plenty of different ways to join the team and help make the event happen.
Here’s Jude sharing why volunteering matters.
Check here for further information.
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Are you ready to study for a PhD with Cliff College?
If you already hold a Masters in Religions and Theology (or
a related area), and have an interest in pursuing further study, we have an
exciting opportunity launching this spring.
Headed up by Dr Heather Major (Research Fellow), we invite
you to join our Research Community and explore the possibility of PhD study. Between April and June 2024 you will engage in a number of seminars,
training and tutorials to develop your research skills and to assist you in
assessing whether PhD study is right for you, and if it is, formulating a PhD
proposal.
We hope at the end of this process to form a small Research
Team of PhD students at Cliff, with a focus on New Places for New People (NPNP)
and Church at the Margins (CAM).
Click here for more information or send us an email.
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This newsletter is all about
being Open, as part of a Methodist Way of Life.
For some of us, this element
of our discipleship is key, be it about hospitality, or giving generously, for
others this is a station we get engage with less frequently. Knowing which
elements of our discipleship are most familiar to us, and which are harder, is
important as we grow in faith. Equally this information can help us to discern
our vocation too.
Explore is an opportunity for
any member of the Methodist Church in Britain to take a step back, and consider
if you are called to respond to God’s invitation to church leadership, and if
so, what forms that could take.
You can register anytime of
the year for the Explore programme, although the course starts in May and
September.
Once registered, you get a
1:1 Accompanist, support about theological reflection, signposts to a range of
resources, encouragement to shadow people already in leadership, and will be
part of a 9-month course.
Click here to find more information.
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Faith in Change and Conflict
Join us as we
explore change and conflict together and discover new, positive ways to
navigate challenges in our churches and communities.
Find out more here.
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Social Justice and Evangelism Webinars
An online space to think about the connection between social justice and evangelism. Open to anyone who wants to listen, learn, and share in conversation. Click here for more information.
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Church Planting Intensive, 15-17 March 2024 at Cliff College, bookings
via this link, followed by
online sessions (Thursdays 7-8.30pm). Click here for more information.
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Rural Mission & Ministry Course
Come and gather with other ecumenical rural leaders to
explore what community, mission, evangelism & leadership can look like in
rural contexts.
“Really helpful – practical, inspiring &
encouraging!”- RMC participant.
For further information & to book, click here or email Sarah Hulme, rural mission & ministry officer.
50% bursary for Methodists
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