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Welcome to the February 2006 Children's Workers' newsletter. |
We continue to receive audit returns from churches all across the country which enables us to analyse the needs of workers in many locations. The main concerns for workers continue to be training and resources, and we cover some aspects of both in this month's newsletter.
Both these subjects are crucial to the development of children's ministry and we endeavour to support and advise on these, and many more issues throughout the Connexion.
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Lent and Easter
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Christmas and New Year are over, so it's time to start planning for Lent and Easter! MethodistChildren are delighted to offer you our new resource section on the website to help you plan your Lent and Easter programme! Packed with reviews of books, resources, and material to use, it's the only way to ensure that this special time in the Church year is explored by both children and adults in your community! One featured resource is 'Play and Pray through Lent' written by our colleagues in the Church in Wales and published by Barnabas, priced £9.99. This resource is ideal for 5-7's and can be used either in a church or home setting and covers the six weeks of Lent and all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary. |
CORE is growing! We have been reporting to you on the development of CORE - the new training material for children's workers and we have yet more exciting developments for you! The material is now in the hands of the publisher, BRF, and so all those involved in the writing are having a well-earned rest. The launch programme is now well under way and thanks to the generosity of the Westhill Trust we are able to announce that there will be at least 9 regional launches across the UK and Ireland. Plans are currently being drawn up with local workers to ensure these are ecumenical and accessible for all. In addition to this there will be a major conference at the University of Nottingham from 8-10 September 2006 to examine the material and related training issues through a programme packed with 18 workshops. The conference will be £150 per person but bursaries will be available. More information on the conference will appear on the CGMC website www.cgmcontheweb.com CORE will feature at the CRE events in Esher and Harrogate. CORE will also be published in Welsh. |
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Pakistan
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JMA money has been sent to the Church of Pakistan to help with its work in the earthquake region. Many children and adults are still living in large, temporary tent villages and continue to need our prayer and support. The Diocese of Raiwind has been given an enormous opportunity by the government of this Muslim country and Bishop Sammy Azariah has asked partners for help to take full advantage of it. |
Vacancies We don't have any, but you might! We have created a new page on the MethodistChildren website where we hope to be able to circulate any vacancies that are available for children's workers. They may be posts that are solely children focussed, but also ones that take in a wider spectrum of community life. We would be delighted to receive information on any such vacancies and then we can create a directory of jobs going! Take a peek at the wonderful opportunity available in the URC at the moment on the Vacancies page. |
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In the last newsletter we asked if we could have some submissions for the Prayer Handbook 2006/07. There is still time to get any material to us
by 17th February 2006. The maximum length for a prayer is 120 words
and the drawings should be as bold as possible. The theme of the
Prayer Handbook will be around 'Redemption', particularly the
abolition of slavery. Perhaps some good themes for the children to
think about would be freedom, gifts we are given and forgiveness,
but prayers on any themes will be considered. |
Prayer Plea |
Urban Hope
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The seminars we ran in conjunction with The Commission on Urban Life and Faith are now further supplemented by the publication of an important new book. 'Urban Hope and Spiritual Health' by Leslie Francis details the research which indicated the poor state of the spiritual health of the young people of England and Wales. The book draws out the main findings from research carried out with young people that draws some startling conclusions for both youth workers and children's workers alike. |
District Day with MethodistChildren March 11th is looming closer and there are still a number of districts who are currently unrepresented at the District Day at Methodist Church House, London. We have been in touch with all TDOs and are now in the process of writing to District Chairs to try to ensure a full attendance. On the day we will be looking at the road ahead in children's work and how we can all support the work in local churches as well as supporting each other. The districts we have attending to date are - London North West, London South East, South Wales, Cumbria, Cornwall,Darlington, East Anglia, Newcastle, Southampton, and Scotland. |
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JMA gets a new look! As part of the ongoing development of children's work we are delighted to inform you that as of the next issue of Rainbow you will see JMA decked out in new colours and designs. Over the last twelve months we have been working on the look for MethodistChildren and we are now bringing JMA clearly into that fold. The new look Rainbow and FUN (Follow Up Notes) will reflect the MethodistChildren style while sticking closely to the JMA promise to Learn, Pray, and Serve with the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. We have discovered recently that there are many churches who have never heard of JMA and the resources that are available to supplement the work - visit http://www.methodistchildren.org.uk/adults/jmamain.htm to find out more or call the MethodistChildren office on 020 7467 5213 to register for your free copies of Rainbow and FUN. |
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‘Roots’ Editorial Team Research Project Roots is a lectionary based resource programme for churches of all denominations, specially designed to support the worship and learning of the whole Church community. Roots publish two bi-monthly magazines Roots Worship and Roots Children and Young People.
Here is a fantastic opportunity to give feed back to the Roots editorial staff, they are looking for people to complete a questionnaire for them, this offers you a great opportunity to give your comments about the material. Click on the link to download the Roots questionnaire and then send it back to us! |
9-13 The MethodistChildren 9-13 Project has been running for ten weeks now and Penny has been hearing good stories from around the Connexion about activities involving this age group. Send a sentence or two about anything you know about that's working well in an email to children@methodistchurch.org.uk Next month sees the launch of the 9-13 pages on the MethodistChildren website. Some of the stories and snippets you send in will be included along with resources and details of some events aimed at this age group. Read about some resources for 9-13 work already at our new 9-13 resource page. |
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If
you require any further information please contact us on children@methodistchurch.org.uk MethodistChildren is part of the Connexional Team of the |
