The United Reformed Church

Royal Welsh Showground, Llanelwedd.

The details for the Ministers’ Day are now finalized.

Michael Jagessar, who is the Central United Reformed Church Secretary for Racial Justice and Multicultural Ministry will be our leader at the Ministers’ Day on the 9th February 2010.

The venue for the day is, as is becoming our ‘tradition’, the Royal Welsh Showground, Llanelwedd.

We will aim to from 10.30 for an 11.00 start. Lunch is being provided. We do understand that some people have fairly long journeys and might need to get home for meetings in the evening. That being so we aim to finish by 4.00 at the latest.

These have been useful and inspiring days when we can be together as colleagues sharing ideas about some aspects of our life together. We hope that this year will be no exception. To stimulate our thinking we have invited the Revd Dr Michael Jagessar to be with us. Michael spoke at our November Synod and those who attended received him very well indeed.

Michael Jagessar is one of the Central Staff members of the Mission Team working with the Mission Committee from Church House. He is also the staff member who has been asked to relate particularly to Wales alongside Simon Walking, our Synod representative on the Mission Committee.

2010, like every year, is a time to encourage each other. So we begin the third year of Vision4Life process focusing on ‘Prayer’, but it is also a time when we are beginning to plan seriously for the ‘God is Still Speaking’ campaign (for want of a better word). More about that later. Michael is an ‘encourager’ and it’s good to have him back in Wales.

Michael says about the focus of the Ministers’ Day :

I want to work with the theme "A Table For All" with a subtext being "An Intercultural Adventure".

Using the table metaphor and imagery - important to the Christian community - I want to explore with colleagues in Wales what it means to live our declaration of being a multicultural church with a focus of moving the conversation from ‘multi’ to ‘inter’ which is more of an engagement rather than separate lives.

I am hoping that this can be interactive (or more appropriately conversation) and that my Welsh colleagues can contribute to this conversation as I think that Wales (like Scotland) bring unique questions to affirm, challenge and help us grow in our life together as a church.

We look forward to sharing this time together. Hope to see you there!

With best wishes,

Peter

Lent 2010 - Counting the Cost, an exciting new Lenten resource from Commitment for Life 

Counting the cost of our lifestyle

Counting the cost of what Jesus did for us

Counting the cost on the poor

Counting the cost of doing nothing……………  

As an individual, do something positive this Lent.  

Sign up for ‘Counting the Cost,’ a web based Lent course with Bible readings, reflections, prayers and facts written by Helen Garton and Sally Whitehead. You are encouraged to respond by giving 1p on the first day, 2p on the second, 3p on the third etc. to support Commitment for Life. The Sunday text will be a story and prayer about our four partner countries and there will be no contribution on that day. 

Send your email address to gill.hillman @urc.org.uk and you will receive a reminder to log onto the ‘Counting the Cost ‘webpage at the beginning of Lent. 

Or you will find the complete course to print off and share with others at  www.cforl.org.uk  from Ash Wednesday 

To find out more email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or ring 01702 315981 

Commitment for life is the recommended way for all United Reformed Churches to give to Christian Aid. ( General Assembly 1992)

Commitment for Life is a dynamic organisation within the United Reformed Church which works with Christian Aid and The World Development Movement to alleviate the root causes of poverty across the world. This service has been very successful in England and Scotland particularly over the past year.
I am asking the Welsh United Reformed churches to support an initiative to rejuvenate Commitment for Life with the objective of developing a commitment for this service across Wales. We are currently supporting projects in Bangladesh, Palestine, Jamaica and Zimbabwe.
Co-ordinating the service across Wales would hopefully maximise the effect of our efforts in contributing to the relief of poverty in these four partner countries . For further information please log on to the URC website and link to Commitment for Life.  
Mary Jeremiah  -  Commitment for Life advocate, June 2009