District News – 01 March 2022

This Week's News

Presbyteral Synod

The Presbyteral Synod will be held on Tuesday 15 March from 9:30am to 1:30pm at St Paul's Methodist Church, Dronfield. The Calling Letter and Agenda have been emailed out. If you have not received this email, please first check your spam/junk folder, then let Katrin in the District Office know so that she can re-send it.

Everyone has a story

Read Neil Harland's latest blog to hear Olly's story and why we need to redouble our sharing of stories as we worship.
Everyone Has A Story will be the theme of our next representative synod gathering on 2 April at Cliff College, where we will showcase a wide range of techniques to help people in in your church share their stories. Book you place (all welcome whether you are a member of synod or not) and register for your choice of workshops now at https://2022springsynod.eventbrite.co.uk and start thinking about who you could invite.

Were You Involved in the Band of Hope?

Do you remember the Band of Hope? Were you involved in a Band of Hope group, or maybe you attended a residential, such as a summer school? Do you have friends or relatives who were involved?

Today the Band of Hope is known as Hope UK, and they would love to hear from you, and other former members. Hope UK would be grateful if you could complete a questionnaire about your memories and experiences of the Band of Hope, to assist them in assessing the effectiveness of their work in equipping young people to make drug-free choices, over the decades.

If you would like to find out more then please visit our website at hopeuk.org/bandofhope : or phone Ian Michell on 07889 496684.

GDPR – Annual Checklist

It is that time of year again when all local churches, circuits and districts need to consider their data protection responsibilities and the way in which they use and protect information relating to other individuals. TMCP thanks all Managing Trustee bodies who undertook and completed the 2021 Checklist. As you know all members of the Methodist Church have a legal responsibility to protect the personal data of individuals and they recognize the hard work and commitment by those Managing Trustees.
TMCP has always promoted data protection as 'People Protection' and we urge all Managing Trustees to see this once-a-year project as demonstration of your commitment to safeguarding everyone associated with your church in the best way possible.
In response to the first of the Annual Checklists, released and completed in 2021, TMCP have taken on board and listened to the comments received. Therefore the 2022 Checklist will be shorter, easier and simpler to complete.
More information on this will follow soon, but in the meantime you can make a start by checking that your Data Mapping is up to date.
The deadline for completion for this year will be 31 May 2022. If you have any questions about this, contact Katrin, the District Data Champion (katrin@sheffieldmethodist.org) who will happy to help.

Freedom Celebrates 10 years as a Charity

Freedom Community Project has been supporting people, families and local communities for over a decade.
It's grown from a small team of volunteers at Bolsover Methodist Church to being able to support over 9,300 people and distributed 39,000 food parcels.
The project has also helped to recover and write off £100,000 worth of debt and has supported 63 homeless people into housing.
The find out more about what Freedom have achieved in the last ten years you can read their story here.

Threads through Creation

Threads through Creation' is an extraordinary, uplifting art exhibition at Southwell Minster, on show from 4th March until 24th April.
The show consists of twelve beautiful silk panels reimagining the story of creation from Genesis. They're huge (2.7m high, up to 3.5m wide) and quite awe-inspiring.
It took artist Jacqui Parkinson (widow of Rob Frost) three years, and eight million stitches!
See www.creation-threads.co.uk for more information.

COVID Secure – for Place of Worship

Methodist Insurance understand that keeping people safe at this time will be a priority for you.
They've provided some guidance and useful links you can refer to and will keep this updated as the situation changes.
COVID Secure guidance

City Wires and Networks: How Christians navigate them

16 May – 18 July

Urban Theology Unions new course is inspired in part by the acclaimed series, The Wire, and drawing especially on Rev. Julian Sullivan's decades of experience of urban ministry in Sheffield.
The sessions will look at city ministry through the perspectives of people who represent five areas of urban life in Sheffield. These include:

• policing & the criminal justice system;
• post-industrial decline & unemployment;
• local government & politics;
• education & schools;
• public health crises, e.g., mental health, chemical addiction & pandemic.

Cost: Course fees: £90
Optional UTU Membership: £45 (standard) £16.50 (low income)

For registration form, please contact: office@utusheffield.org.uk /0114 2709907

Events

Ministry with Older People Community of Practice

18 May – 1pm

The next session following on from the "Generating Groudtgruthed Ideas" will on 18 May at 1pm and will be looking at "Making Partnerships Work".
Working in partnership with other organisations can enable your ministry with older people to achieve things you could not working alone, but can also bring new challenges. We will explore the pitfalls and positives of partnership working, and how to go about setting up a new partnership or improving an existing one.
You can register here: https://220518-partnershipwork.eventbrite.co.u k (before 11 May).

You can find the videos and other links to past events on our web page: https://www.sheffieldmethodist.org/news/communities-of-practice/ministry-with-older-people.html

Creating Welcoming Churches for those Leaving Prison

11 May – 1pm

In partnership with 'The Welcome Directory', Learning Network Yorkshire Plus is offering the opportunity to learn more about how we might welcome into our church those leaving prison. Jesus spent a lot of time hanging about with people who are on the margins of society and He asks us specifically to love those we find difficult. How might we be able to do that, and to do it safely? What do people leaving prison need? How might we offer not only support, but a loving faith community they can be welcomed into? What safeguarding do we need to be aware of?

Chaplaincy Everywhere Online

11 May – 25 June

Have you ever wondered how best you and your church can serve your community? Have you ever looked outside your church door and wondered how you could walk with people there who have not yet met Christ? Well, we might just have the answer: community chaplaincy for mission.

There are many models of chaplaincy, and many ways in which we can 'do' mission. With this course, 'Chaplaincy Everywhere Online' we're combining the two.

If you and your church think mission based on the community chaplaincy model might work in your context, why not join us? There are six webinars over six weeks, culminating in a physical day of Active Listening Training. It's all free, but you must have the support/sponsorship of your faith community, commit to all seven sessions, and you must have completed (or booked onto) Foundation Safeguarding. .

Register your interest here: Chaplaincy Everywhere
or contact Siggy Parratt-Halbert parratt-halberts@methodistchurch.org.uk for more information

Methodist Women in Britain

Connexional Residential Weekend – Surviving by Hope

Bookings are now open for the National Conference at Swanwick from 22- 24 April.
The keynote speaks and leader for the weekend will be Jill Baker, former President of MWiB and Past Vice President of the Methodist Conference. At Swanwick she will be focusing primarily on the energising and sustaining practices of pilgrimage and poetry.
There will also be a variety of workshops; time to make or renew friendships and time to relax together or find quiet space.
More information, including how to book, can be found here: Surviving by Hope

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally recognised training course which teaches people how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health and provide help on a first aid basis.
Usually the course costs £300, however if you are connected to the Methodist Church it's been subsidised to £50 (non refundable).-In person training at Swan Bank Methodist Church: 4th and 5th May, 9am to 5pm

• Follow the link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mental-health-first-aid-tickets-216356908337

For more information about Mental Health First Aid please contact the Revd Carla Quenet, quenetc@methodistchurch.org.uk.

Rural Ministry Course

Taking place Tuesday 14 – Thursday 16 June, at King's Park Conference Centre, Northampton, the Rural Ministry Course is designed for lay and ordained church leaders across the denominations entering a rural appointment for the first time, and those already in rural ministry who feel the need for a 'refresher'.

The three-day programme employs a variety of approaches including practical sessions, group work and workshops led by practitioners, and includes sessions on understanding rural contexts, mission and growth, leadership, farming and work with children and young people in the countryside.

Fees are £300 per delegate for the residential course, which includes a one-year subscription to Country Way magazine.
Learn more here

Job Vacancies

Part time Pre-Teen & Youth Worker

at Wesley Hall, Crookes, Sheffield

Wesley Hall is a dynamic welcoming community-focused Methodist Church. We are looking for someone with the passion and expertise to work with us in developing our mission and ministry to young people aged 11-18, building on the success of existing children and youth programmes and providing the necessary specialist expertise not currently available within the congregation.

As our pre-teen and youth worker you will:

• Bring expertise to the church leadership as we develop our pre-teen and youth programme and team
• Lead and organise a programme of activities including community-building, faith-sharing and Christian nurture
• Walk alongside young people journeying from attendance at church-run events into discipleship
• Work in partnership with the families and community co-ordinator, centre manager, minister and congregation

Part time: 14 hours per week
Salary: Up to £8,660 per annum (£24,740 full time equivalent) at £11.90 per hour,
plus option to join contributory pension scheme

Applications by 12noon on Monday 21st March with interviews on Tuesday 29th March (subject to candidate availability) and a start date to be agreed with the successful candidate.

For information and applications, please contact Matt Irons 07582 855 409 or matt.irons@wesleyhall.org.uk.

There is a genuine occupational requirement that the post-holder be a practising Christian.

Events And Communications Co-Ordinator

Whirlow Spirituality Centre

Whirlow Spirituality Centre works in partnership with All Saints, Ecclesall, from a beautiful chapel and events centre in Whirlow. Whilst the centre operates its day to day work under the board of Whirlow Grange Ltd, All Saints, Ecclesall offers support with the employment and payroll element of it's work.

Therefore, although employed by Ecclesall PCC, you will be based and managed at Whirlow Spirituality Centre, under the direction of the organisation's friendly and supportive Chaplain, Joy Adams.

The role is part time, for 15 hours a week, to be worked over 3 or 4 days to include Tuesdays, at a rate of £15.75 per hour.

More information can be found on their website here: Whirlow is recruiting

Other News

Electronic liturgies being piloted

Available in time for Lent are a number of electronic versions of services of Holy Communion from the Methodist Worship Book, including for Lent and Passiontide. Already there has been quite a buzz around this news and we look forward to more liturgies being added in due course.

Currently, you can download the Holy Communion services in Word format and individual services in PowerPoint format.

This is a pilot project from Methodist Publishing and any feedback would be very welcome. Please contact publishing@methodistchurch.org.uk with your thoughts.