April Update

NEWS

If you missed the ‘Making Sense of the Census’ seminar check the previous PEN blog for key points and links.
The Christian Interfaith Practice in Action CIPA has cancelled its annual conference which was to be next month.

EVENTS
Wednesday 15th May 6.05pm JustShare welcomes Will Crouch, co-founder and President of 80,000 Hours to discuss “Professional Philanthropy: How to save thousands of Lies without leaving the City at St Mary le Bow, Cheapside, EC2V 6AU Registeror email justshare@stmarylebow.org.uk  

Tuesday 21st May 6.30-8pm Embrace the Middle East annual lecture Christians and Politics in Egypt The Transformation of a nation: an Egyptian perspective, by His Grace Bishop Thomas – El Qussia & Mair Coptic Diocese, Upper Egypt at St James’s Church, Piccadilly all welcome but please pre register via www.embrace.org/lecture  or phone 01494 897950

RESOURCES
Catriona Robertson has 15 years of experience working with local faith and community groups and recently presented at the Faith Based Regeneration AGM on “knowing your patch”. Her blog sitegives examples of her work. Also, a social audit checklist, the hand out from the AGM, is available via PEN or direct from Catriona. She is available to train those wanting to undertake their own audit and is happy to discuss paid or pro bono work at no obligation. Email or Telephone 07903 682 142

The Contextual Theology Centre has created 'Money Talks', a resource to help churches listen and respond to the impact of the current economic situation on their local community. Money Talks are a simple facilitated conversation which gather testimony, find potential leaders and identify the issues that people have a passion to work on. David Barclay is available to (or help others to) hold a Money Talk in individual churches contact him at davidb@theology-centre.org  or Telephone 020 7780 1600 Also see the Money Talk download on the CTC website

The Church Urban Fund has announced some new pieces of research; a Guide to Welfare Reforms 2010-2017 and It all adds up: the cumulative impact of welfare reform both can be downloaded from the research pageof their website.

The Christian Muslim Forum added an interesting discussion starter to its website recently, Inter faith for the cautious and their Director, Julian Bond, contributed to the Tablet blog with Can Christians and Muslims Pray Together
 
ADVANCE NOTICE
The Council for Christians and Jews is running its annual 10 day seminar at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem from 28th October to 7th November 2013 contact Fiona Hulbertfor details.

Making Sense of the Census

Earlier in 2013 PEN hosted an afternoon around the 2011 census data; what it does and doesn't tell us and what to do with the information. We are very grateful to Louise McFerran from the Church of England's Research and Statistics Department who gave of her time and experise. For those who weren't able to attend here are the key points:-

• Understanding the community we serve is key to ministry and mission; it requires a mixture of observation and background research.


• Headline statistics can be found on the Church of England website (this link opens on the page with a download of provisional parish figures).

• The dip in those identifying as Christian is not as large as it was feared it might be. There is a significant increase in ‘no religion’.

• When looking at  the stats remember that Parish and Deanery boundaries are rarely coterminous with eg Borough Wards so ‘mind the boundaries’

• The Church of England is producing parish profiles for every Parish giving census information feedback and they will be creating some Deanery profiles too. Diocesan headlines are available on request.
• Longer term the national Presence and Engagement website will have a postcode tool to look at faiths breakdown integrated with the CUF poverty indicators tool.

• Other handy sources -  Tear Fund Inside out course  and the Contextual Theology Centre has produced a resource for parishes called ‘Mercy, Justice and Evangelism’ which enables congregations to engage with some of the issues raised by the census material. Please note this is a draft document and we would like feed back from parishes that use the resource so as to improve it. Email pen@theology-centre.org or telephone 0020 7780 1600 xtn 3 and speak to Susanne Mitchell



 

The Good Death

The Open Forum initiative launched by St Barnabas church in Dulwich last autumn aims to bring together people in the area from different churches, other faith communities and people with no religious affiliation to discuss topics of common interest, taking a different overall theme each year.The theme of the first series of meetings is Wellbeing, Health and Wholeness.

The next meeting will be at 8.00 pm on Thursday 18 April. The topic will be The Good Death. Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE, is the Senior Rabbi of the West London Synagogue and a former Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, a health ‘think tank’. She is also a well-known broadcaster and author. She will be speaking about some of the themes in her most recent book, Is That All There Is ?, including ‘what will be our legacy – our mark on the world?’ She will help us explore the significance that a good death can mean for living well - and that a full life can contribute to a good death. In addition, Canon Vernon White, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, will offer some reflections on the concept of an after-life, drawing on his series of lectures on this subject at the Abbey in the spring of 2012.

Everyone will be most welcome at the meeting. St Barnabas church is in Calton Avenue, SE21 7DG.

   

PEN would be pleased to hear of (and publicise) similar events in other areas of Greater London.