God for All update December 2022 |  |  |
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Dear friends,
This month we declare that there is room for all people and all of nature in God’s story. The Methodist Church’s Christmas campaign, #ThereIsRoom, launched just before the start of advent, with a beautiful video that you can watch on The Methodist Church’s YouTube channel.
–Trey Hall, Director of Evangelism and Growth |
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This month’s story of hope
Did you know that there is a natural antidepressant found in soil? “God has put something in the very ground that we walk on that makes us feel joy and happiness,” explains pastoral worker, Ruth Burrows. Here is a short video about Sprowston Community Garden, which is offered for Methodists to use in the third week of Advent as part of our Advent campaign, #thereisroom. There is room for all of nature.
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01 Share.
Whether you’re social-media-savvy or a technophobe, the Methodist Church’s Christmas campaign makes it easy for you to share faith on social media. Simply like, share and comment on The Methodist Church’s posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram, or create your own posts using the hashtag #ThereIsRoom. Include a link to thereisroom.co.uk a webpage created with unaffiliated people in mind, to explain simply what the good news is all about and how they can find out more. As people live so much of their lives online now, use that space to show people that there is room for all. |
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02 Read.
Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, A Christmas Carol, may have inspired a thousand sickly sweet adaptations, but at the heart of the original story is Dickens’ horror at the way Victorian society abandoned so many people to deep poverty. If you don’t have time to read the whole story, just take half an hour to read Stave I: Marley’s Ghost for free on the Project Gutenberg website. Here’s a taster: “At this time of the rolling year,” the spectre said, “I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!” If you’re sensing a call to begin a new Christian community among people at the economic margins of society, check out upcoming Church at the Margins webinars and network gatherings here. There is room for people experiencing poverty in the Christmas story. |
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03 Welcome.
Last week we learned that, for the first time, less than 50% of people living in the UK described themselves as Christian in the Census, and 37.2% described themselves as having no religion. In this post, written by our team for the Methodist blog, we argue that we can both welcome this information and take up the challenge of showing people unaffiliated with Christianity that they are welcome in Church and in God’s story. For inspiration, training and networking opportunities to enable you and your church to take up this challenge, register |
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04 Watch. You may already have watched this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert and shed a tear. One of our team has recently become an adoptive parent, so it's hit home in a special way. Christmas is very hard for looked after children for all kinds of reasons. You can watch a short video in which the John Lewis team explain that, in making #TheBeginner, they wanted to tell a different kind of story about family. There is room for all children and all families in the Christmas story. |
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05 Gift.
Do you long to see the world God loves transformed? Do you believe that local churches can make a difference in their communities? And are you free on the weekend of 13th to 15th January 2023? There are funded places worth £180 per person available on the Transformational Leadership Learning Community residential at Yarnfield Park, near Stafford, for lay and ordained Methodist leaders to come together to reflect, learn and make plans for positive action. Email for details or simply register here. |
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06 Laugh. Actual footage of the Evangelism and Growth Team’s Christmas party:
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The Methodist Church | Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JR 020 7486 5502 (Reception) www.methodist.org.uk Registered charity no. 1132208 |