Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church

Too cold for gardening? Time to sort out the tool shed! The Tools Shed project collects old unwanted and broken garden hand tools and repairs them in prison workshops. The lovely refurbished tools are then donated free of charge to local schools and community gardening groups. We’re asking local residents to help us by doing...

The recent overwhelming pro-democracy vote in Hong Kong and revelations of brainwashing camps have only highlighted the growing intolerance in China towards religious minorities. It’s not just the Uighur Muslims who are facing a crackdown. Recent reports from China indicate that Christians are facing the worst persecution since the Cultural Revolution, say partners of Release...

The Clergy Support Trust, formerly Sons & Friends of the Clergy, helps Anglican clergy and their families in times of need with various grants. This year, they are seeking to double the number of clergy and families whom they reach, offering assistance with financial support grants, health grants, emergency grants, wellbeing grants, and debt support....

An Anglican church leader has explained the Church’s official stance on yoga in churches after a church in Devon rejected a request from a yoga instructor to hold a class in its church hall. Archdeacon Mark Butchers of Barnstaple, who oversees churches in North Devon, told the news site Devon Live that Church of England...

Growing insecurity in Iraq and on its border could lead to a fresh exodus of Christians from the country, warns a partner of Release International, which is supporting refugees in the country. Only around 300,000 Christians remain in Iraq from a peak of 1.8 million in the year 2000. They’ve been driven out by conflict...

The two earthquakes which recently rocked Albania caused massive damage, killing at least 47 people and injuring 750.  The first was magnitude 6.4, the worst earthquake Albania has experienced for decades. In the weeks since the quakes, the Albanian Evangelical Alliance has been coordinating churches across the country to provide hot meals, tents, blankets, transport...

Ethical Christmas presents ‘Tis the season for Angels! Free gifts for festive shoppers C of E’s Environment Group calls for greater action on Climate Change The Nazareth Trust – working to heal and improve lives Millennium yew trees – 20 years on Don’t ignore RE! Paradise and the Final Judgement in danger of flaking **...

How much damage to the earth will we manage to do this Christmas?   Those hundreds of millions of presents we are going to buy come from somewhere – usually raw resources.  Are the presents worth the strain on our already struggling planet? Here are some alternative presents, that are eco-friendly, useful, and fairly traded. Christian...

Angels make a big appearance in the story of Christmas, but over the next few weeks other kinds of angels will be making appearances throughout the country, on streets and inside nightclubs. Teams of Street Angels and Club Angels will work hard this month to help to keep communities and people, especially within the night-time...

Families shopping this festive season will receive two great giveaways telling the Christmas story. HOPE Together, Bible Society and Speak Life are working with The Entertainer toy stores to help customers appreciate the reason for the season. The Entertainer chain is the UK’s largest independent toy retailer and each store has a nativity scene in...

The Church of England’s Environmental Advisory Group has called for all parts of the Church to recognise the Climate Crisis and step up its action to safeguard God’s creation. In guidance sent recently to bishops, dioceses and church leadership teams, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) points to the ambitious programme of action required, covering everything...

This year the Nazareth Trust has raised funds to support renovation work in the Nazareth Hospital’s Maternity Department.  Over £60,000 was raised, renovations are well underway. For 2020, the aim is to launch a new International Volunteer Chaplaincy. As a spokesman explains, “At our hospital, we encounter over 300,000 people every year. We want to...