RSA (3): Confidence tricks

Rowland Manthorpe’s article on this in the latest RSA Journal starts as follows – with salutary effect for the father of four young adults:

Earlier this year NatWest surveyed 9,000 young people about their salary expectations. The gloomy economic forecasts seem to have influenced their respondents, because their expected average earnings fell from last year’s estimate. Instead of saying they would be earning £70,0000 by the time they were 35, they modestly anticipated £54,000. It is a startling display of confidence. The average salary for a 35-year-old is £23,893.

Filed under: Current affairs

Latest Ely Schools News

Filed under: Schools , Diocese of Ely

Church Urban Fund News

More news from the Church Urban Fund.

Harvesting Hope: free resources to help you plant a Seed of Hope this Harvest

CUF want to spread twice as much hope by raising enough money to double the number of projects that they support in England’s poorest communities. You can help them and become a hope giver this Harvest by taking part in a range of prayer and fundraising activities using their free resources.

Pray for Hope using our postcard-sized prayer cards, get children involved in your family or church with our range of children’s resources based on the parable of the Mustard Seed or host a Big Munch event and share food with friends in return for a donation. Our Seeds of Hope DVD, Gift Aid envelopes, leaflets, posters and prayer resources are available to support your Harvest activities. Order your resources online now, call 0207 898 1667 or email emma.bennett@cuf.org.uk

September podcast: Game for Life at Greenbelt

CUF were out and about at events including New Wine and Greenbelt. They wanted to share some of the experiences of the people they met, so this month’s podcast features comments from some of the people who came to their Game of Life exhibition at Greenbelt, where Church Urban Fund was an associate partner.

“A sense of marginalisation, feeling outside of mainstream society… ignored and also physically isolated from the kinds of areas that are very healthy and vibrant…” These were the first thoughts that came to mind for Andy from Nottingham when he thought of people living in deprived areas.

With our exhibition illustrating how the odds are stacked against people in the poorest communities, Lisa from Swansea said, “Some of the statistics, the numbers, are a lot higher than I thought in some cases…in a way it’s depressing but it’s also good that there are people out there to give hope as well.”

Project of the Month: Superkidz, the Ferrier estate, Greenwich

The Ferrier Estate is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in London. High levels of violent crime, teenage pregnancies, as well as growing a drugs problem combine to leave a pervading sense of hopelessness. For many young people, such an atmosphere dominates and moulds their life expectations.

Helen Russell and her husband Mick started Superkidz over ten years ago, as a way of building friendships and self-esteem, and offering young people an alternative to crime and anti-social behaviour. Over the last seven years, Superkidz has worked with more than 1,000 under-15s through weekly youth clubs, residential courses and home visits, and also works to support families on the estate through befriending and mentoring schemes.

As an outreach of the Holy Spirit Church, Superkidz works to share God’s love for people on the estate. “God loves them more than they could imagine,” Mick explains, “and we’re helping them to understand that for themselves.” Superkidz has now become the Superkidz Trust, working across the estate to build a strong, safe community.

Superkidz is our featured Project of the Month – you can read more at www.cuf.org.uk/projectofthemonth.aspx

Filed under: Current affairs, Resources, community

Dedicating new work at Diddington

This year our diocese of Ely celebrates its 900^thbirthday. So, you might say; our church here at Diddington is earlier still, dating from at least 1086 when it was mentioned in the Domesday Book survey. It’s a reminder that even if 900 years is a long time, the people of this place and many others round here received the Christian faith at least as long before 900 as Chaucer is before us, in the days of the sixth century and the  Sutton Hoo treasure. And it all began of course with the life of Jesus another 6 centuries before that.

What a story the stones of this church could tell. How much change they have seen! And all through those years and those changes one thing has been constant: the two-way faithfulness of God and his people. Our Ely 900 collect puts it so well:

Faithful God,
we give you thanks
that we are your people
and you are our God,
in times of fruitfulness and times of need;
in times of opportunity and times of challenge.
As you have been faithful to us,
may we continue in faithfulness to you,
in witness to your love
and in expectation of your promises,
by the power of your Spirit
and through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

So most of all today I want to simply say “thank you” and “well done” to every one of you that has been involved in the project of faithfully keeping watch over St Laurence’s and seeing it so splendidly into the twenty-first century; still standing, still standing for everything that it always has, and now standing tall, flushed with pride. That’s an awful joke that you’ll have heard many other times today, so as you recover may I ask you to simple look round, say thank you to each other in the form of a smile, and then give each other a well-deserved round of applause.

Filed under: Sermons and Talks

Palestine in Cambridge

Technorati Tags: Palestine

Filed under: Events

Jerome, Translator of the Scriptures

Seven starters about St Jerome:

1. Born in the 340s on the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia.
2. Was forced to leave his position at Rome after an inquiry by the Roman clergy into allegations that he had improper relations with the widow Paula.
3. Settled in Bethlehem where he founded a monastery and devoted himself to study, with finance and books provided by  Paula.
4. Already trained in rhetoric and languages, he turned to study the Bible not the classics, learned Hebrew and translated the Bible into Latin – the ‘Vulgate’ became the medieval standard.
5. One of the 4 Latin doctors of the church (with Augustine, Ambrose and Gregory) – often shown in art together
6. Often shown dressed as a cardinal (with a red hat) but this is anachronistic. He is often also depicted with a lion, due to a medieval story in which he removed a thorn from a lion’s paw
7. He died on this day in the year 420.

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints

Ely Diocese Prayers for 30th September

South Runcton with Holme with Wallington and Thorpland St Andrew

Rector: James Nolan SSC

Link: Norfolk Vocational School, Uganda

Praying that the people of the village will be drawn to the Sacrament of Confession so that they will know God’s love for them, that he is ever willing to forgive, to be reconciled with them, so that they can have a conversion of heart, to change like the bread and wine in the Mass, to become different.

Runcton Holme Church of England Primary School

St Edmundsbury & Ipswich – The Rt Revd William Nigel Stock: St Edmundsbury & Ipswich – Dunwich – The Rt Revd Clive Young

Filed under: Prayer Cycle

RSA (2): Capital Gains

That;s the title of an article by David Halpern in the latest RSA Journal. It examines the nature of social capital in various contexts.

Some pull-outs:

• In the 1950’s 60% of Brits thought most other people could be trusted. By the late ‘90s it was 29%. In some Scandinavian countries though it rose.
• “We Anglo- Saxons have spent the past few decades using our growing personal wealth to escape from the inconvenience of other people.” (eg a TV in every room)
• “Despite popular and secular media portrayals, religious belief is remarkably robust across Europe and has changed very little in the past 25 years. Even church-going, which had been falling steadily for decades, has had something of a revival.”

Filed under: Current affairs, community , Scoial capital

The Big Walk

Well, here I am on the last leg of the Big “Bishop’s Walk” from Ely to Cambridge (thanks to Owen Spencer-Thomas for the photo). The Bishop of Ely triumphed by walking the whole way. I’m afraid I cheated by dropping off at Stretham to go to the church there for “Back to Church Sunday” and then getting a lift to rejoin the walk at Waterbeach.

Congratulations to all the walkers and many thanks to the University and Peterhouse for their welcome at the end.

Filed under: Events , Ely 900

New Fresh Expressions website

http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/news/new-website-launched

A new Fresh Expressions website has been launched

This new site has been launched after a series of consultations and a major survey and we hope it will continue to be the first stop for anyone wanting to find out about the Fresh Expressions initiative and how they might be involved.

The new site is focussed around telling stories of fresh expressions which will give good examples of new forms of church and provide inspiration and share good practice. You can search the stories by location or by keyword or you can simply browse.

We’ve also updated the back end of the site to allow us to integrate more audio and video material and improve the layout and navigation. We’ve got a new media section and an area with ways you can get involved.

You’ll also still find lots of information about us as an organistion, about our training and events and our resources – purchasable from our improved shop.

Filed under: Church of England, Resources, mission , Fresh Expressions