NEWS FROM THE NORTH WESTERN SYNOD 23 RD JANUARY Newsletter

Transcription

1 NEWS FROM THE NORTH WESTERN SYNOD 23 RD JANUARY 2019 Newsletter 1

2 A reminder to book on our GDPR Workshops. The dates and venues for the workshops and are set out below. Cumbria Area Penrith Carver Church, Windermere Lancashire Area Garstang Revidge Fold, Blackburn Central Area Macedonia, Failsworth St Andrews & St George, Bolton South Area Christ Church, South Manchester Hazel Grove, Short Street Tuesday 29 th 2pm Wednesday 30 th 2pm Thursday 31 st Tuesday 5 th 6pm Monday 11 th 7pm Tuesday 12 th Monday 18 th 2pm Tuesday 19 th 7pm Please could you let the Synod Office know beforehand the expected numbers from your church for the workshops, either by phone or to office@nwsynod.org.uk. I look forward to meeting you at the workshops Mike Hart Synod Treasurer 2

3 In her most recent research, Tanner is developing what she calls a Protestant anti-work ethic. In his classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber famously showed how Christian beliefs and practices could shape persons in line with capitalism. In this significant reimagining of Weber s work, Kathryn Tanner provocatively reverses this thesis, arguing that Christianity can offer a direct challenge to the largely uncontested growth of capitalism. Exploring the cultural forms typical of the current finance-dominated system of capitalism, Tanner shows how they can be countered by Christian beliefs and practices with a comparable person-shaping capacity. Addressing head-on the issues of economic inequality, structural under- and unemployment, and capitalism s unstable boom/bust cycles, she is drawing deeply on the theological resources within Christianity to imagine anew a world of human flourishing. The title of the Ferguson lecture is Grace and the Temporalities of Capitalism and develops an aspect of her most recent research. You ll find a short blurb below. 3 The fusion of past, present, and future within contemporary capitalism hinders its critique: a fundamentally different future becomes unimaginable. A Christian understanding of grace expands the range of imaginative possibility by offering a counter-temporality in which past, present, and future are broken apart rather than collapsed. The lecture will take place on Thursday 7 March at 4 pm in the Ellen Wilkinson Building, Graduate School Conference Room, C1.18 at the University of Manchester. (The Ellen Wilkinson building is no. 77 on the campus map. You can access the campus map here.) The lecture will be followed by a wine reception at 5.30 pm. Earlier the same day there will be a Ferguson presentation at the Visitor s Centre at Manchester Cathedral at which Prof. Tanner will speak to the topic, Conversion and Capitalism: Breaking the Chains of the Past? In this presentation, she will be discussing the person-shaping capacity of Christian conversion and its capacities for freedom in a capitalist context. You ll find a short blurb below.

4 Both workers and debtors within finance-dominated capitalism find their present action to be rigidly constrained by the past. How might the presumed inevitability of this way of relating to the past be undercut by Christian forms of self-repudiation in conversion and the ruptured narratives that go along with them? This presentation will take place from noon to 1 pm, followed by lunch. You are warmly invited to one or both events. The Ferguson lecture and the Cathedral presentation are free and open to the public; a ticket is not required. 4

5 SEMINAR SERIES Feb -May pm Alternate Thursdays Room 6.212, University Place, 176 Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL. 7 th February Dr. Lea Taragin Zeller (University of Cambridge) Making a Jewish Life: An Ethnographic Approach to Religious Authority and Ethical Freedom. 21 st February Mr Amin Ehteshami (University of California, Berkeley) The Pivot to Canonization: Scripturalist Hermeneutics in Premodern Iran. 7 th March Samuel Ferguson Lecture Professor Kathryn Tanner (Yale University) Grace and the Temporalities of Capitalism. VENUE: Ellen Wilkinson Building, Graduate School Conference Room, C1.18 Further details: 21 st March Mr Kevin Storer (University of Manchester) Kierkegaard on the Dialectic of Authority and Imagination: Reading the Bible as a Christian. 4 th April Reverend Canon Professor John Rodwell (Honorary Research Fellow, Lincoln Theological Institute) From Curiosity to Commodity: Making Claims on Nature. 2 nd May Dr. Carl Kilcourse (Manchester Metropolitan University) Conflict in the Heavenly Capital: Protestant Missionaries, Taiping Rebels, and the Meaning of Christianity. Enquiries: Andrew.boakye@manchester.ac.uk 5

6 After being in St Annes Council Building on a temporary basis at last we have found a wonderful new base at St Annes URC. Negotiations have been going on for some months with Reverend Jim Williams and the Synod and we were all delighted to hear the news at the beginning of December (shortly after the Council had given us notice!) that we had the go ahead to move into the annexe at St Annes Church. Jim actually works for us one afternoon every month so he was fully aware of our needs for decent sized accommodation in the middle of St Annes to satisfy the needs of our clients the majority of them who live in the surrounding area. With help of our trustees and all our staff who just mucked in willingly as usual we have partitioned off the building to create a warehouse for all our donations (local folk are very generous), an office and a meeting room to chat to our clients in private. We officially started seeing clients on Tuesday 8 January - everyone found us very quickly and what a busy week we had that week. We are now settling in and it feels like HOME already. As well as our St Annes base where we open on a Tuesday and Thursday we also have a base at Kirkham which opens on a Monday and Friday and a satellite base at Warton which is telephone led. So we manage to cover the Fylde conurbation 5 days we week. Our 5-year lease has given us peace of mind. Like everyone else in the country all our volunteers believe that we should not need to provide Foodbanks in this country but it sadly a fact of life at present but with the blessing of all we can provide our 1 st class service at the heart of our community the church. 6

7 Job vacancy Northern Synod Youth Advisor The... United Reformed Church Northern Synod Youth Work Advisor. New Part-Time Post. 25 hours per week. Salary; 28,500 (FTE) An exciting new opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, dedicated Christian to apply their experience and passion to drive the development of youth work within the Northern Synod of the URC which extends from North Northumberland to North allerton. If this appeals to you, you will be working alongside the existing Synod Children's Work Advisor to provid e a co-ordinated approach to children and youth work across the Synod. The job will focus on encouraging young people to explore the relevance of the Christian faith in their lives and in their communities; and encouraging those who already volunteer in t his work by introducing t hem to new resources, initiatives and events. You will need to be able to work with a diverse group of colleagues and volunteer s and have a strong sense of self-motivat ion. The post is initially subject to an eighteen-month employment con tract. To know more, please check out the job description on the Synod website To apply please send a copy of your CV with a covering letter telling us what attracts you to this work. The closing date for applications is the 4t' February. We anticipate interviews will be held mid-february. All applications should be made on line and sent to wendy.watson@urcnorthe rnsy nod.o rg 7

8 No Faith in Fracking Fridays No Faith in Fracking Fridays Last Friday of every month No Faith in Fracking Fridays at Preston New Road offer a space and a welcome for people moved by faith and spirit to express our shared resistance to tracking and our care for Earth. People of all faiths and spiritualities and none are welcome. Please join our faithful peace witness on last Fridays. Bring a brolly, a chair to sit on, food to snack on and colourful banners. Dust down your muchloved poems and readings that chime with our theme. Quaker silent vigil is held, 1 to 2pm, at the gates of Cuadrilla's fracking site, near Blackpool, on the last Friday of every month, ending with readings offered by anyone taking part. All are welcome to join and contribute. Spiritual practices from other traditions also take place as led by those present on the day. These include walking meditation, chanting, prayer, readings, ritual and blessings. /nofaithinfracking.org/ / 8

9 No Faith in Fracking Fridays Last Friday of each month Location Cuadrilla Fracking Site Preston New Road Blackpool PR43PF Practicalities The Cuadrilla site is on the 61 bus route. There is parking at Maple Farm. W.O~ QllJR C~ I ~DREN,S CHILDREN'S CHit.DREN'S CHI DREN'S CHILDREN S CfHL DBf s CHfl PRF N Contact nofaithinfracksgroup@protonmail.com For information about No Faith in Fracking: Humankinq has not woven the web of life. We are but one threaq within it. Whatever we qo to the web, we qo to ourselves. Chief Seattle 9

10 At Bramhall United Reformed Church, we have started on the 4th Sunday of the Month at 4pm a new Pizza Church Service. We have a good chat sat around tables café style about a Topical subject and its relation to the Bible and of course as the name suggests we have pizza slices to keep us going. This month s meeting is on Sunday 27th January at 4pm and the Topic is "Why do we need foodbanks" Everybody Welcome. some large print +music, 60 Come and Praise Rejoice and Sing some of them large print, approx 50 Mission Praise 10

11 Bread of Life for Lent and Easter 2019 Springs Dance Company presents Brea of Life Engage and inspire your local community this Lent and Easter. 'It has left a lasting impression on me.' 'The most wonderful I ave story.' 'If that's what Jesus is like then I'm in I' Audience members, Birmingham Cathedral and StPeter's, Edinburgh Watch now: 11

12 Springs Dance Company's Bread of Life is an inspirational depiction of how God is building a communi~ of love with Jesus himself at the centre. Communities aren't static, they grow and breathe, so what more vivid a way to describe their formation than through the dynamic medium of contemporary dance. Suzannah McCreight's choreography uncannily draws together the solid, seen world of people with the unseen world of spirit and emotion, capturing the essence of God's purpose. The dance begins with separation; separation of people one from another and the institutionalised Jesus. Through a series of encounters with the presence of Jesus, the light begins to dawn for each member of the congregation. Barriers are broken down and unity begins to form. An exuberant finale completes the piece as the renewed community celebrates a meal of bread and wine with Jesus, the ever present King. The music and movement reach beyond words to give a much more profound understanding of the Gospel. Few I eave the performance unmoved and the piece has the power to open our eyes to the fullness of God's heart for us. This is a story about you and me today. It's a story aboutwhathappenswhenwe together, rediscover the living, breathing Bread of Life. After the show, the cast can hoi d an open Q &A session, enabling audiences to engage further with the themes of the performance. The show is targeted at festivals, worship conferences, cathedrals, churches and schools. It is performed to the high est standard by a company of ftve world class professional dancers. The dance lasts so minutes. You'll need a space of at least 6m x 6m for us to lay our dance floor, ideally with the audience on three or four sides. Springs Dance Company need a fee of at least &50 plus travel expenses to present the show. Many venues cover this cost by charging between 6 and 12 for tickets. 12