IT ALL STARTS AT YES!

You’re eligible for a place onto the National Citizen Service programme this summer.

National Citizen Service gives you the chance to take on new challenges, learn new skills and make a difference.

It’s about excitement and adventure, fun and friendship, and feeling like you can shape your own future. You can add skills to your CV, build up UCAS points and improve your chances of going to university, college or getting a job.

And you can do it all while you make new friends and have fun.

If you are 16 or 17, no matter what your background or abilities, you can take part! And everyone on NCS gets their say in what they do and how they do it.

Visit http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/ then complete the sign-up form OR call the Oxfordshire Association for Young People, who are delivering the programme in Oxfordshire on 01865 767899  and the NCS Network team will take your application over the phone in minutes.

  

You can access the entire four week programme for our special offer price of only £35 if you sign up and pay before the end of May! (Usual price £50)

News from the 

Oxfordshire Woodfuel Programme

www.oxonwoodfuel.org.uk/

OWP has places left on two woodfuel visits:

Sat 1 June 10 am – 4 pm  A unique opportunity to see MOD Bicester Garrison's woodland,  try wild rabbit, and take home as much firewood as you can fit in your car.  £30.  Contact Gary Beckett at gbeckett_13@btopenworld.com, 07810 756110 .

Sat 8 June  9:40 am – 3:40pm  Thrupp Wood near Kidlington, Sustainable Kirtlington's woodfuel production, and Manor House Stoves.   Starts/ends at Water Eaton P&R.  £25.  Contact Fiona.Danks@oxonrcc.org.uk , 01865 883488.

The woodfuel programme has received several offers of unseasoned logs at a good price.  It is mostly willow and would require cutting into lengths and storing under cover for at least one summer.  Contact manager@oxonwoodfuel.org.uk.

If you have a woodland that could use some help, or are happy to work in a woodland in return for logs, please see www.oxonwoodfuel.org.uk/logs-for-labour.

Want to fight hunger?

To make connections between faith & food?

Come to

An evening introducing

  

 

Including:

 An introduction to the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign. The speaker will be Jennifer Bennett, Churches Campaigns Officer, Christian Aid. With time for Questions and Answers

      An introduction to the Food Matters project, with time for Questions and Answers

 Opportunities to make Enough IF materials to take back to your church or down to London on the 8^th of June

News about what’s coming up in Enough Food IF and Food Matters, and opportunities to discuss how your church and other churches might get involved.

30 May 2013,  7:30 pm           

St Edburg’s Church Hall, Bicester

Fairtrade Refreshments provided.

For information /to register, email sjohnson@christianaid.org or ring 01865 246818.

Organised by Christian Aid, CCOW, Diocese of Oxford, Tearfund

New Guide to Training for Lay People in Rural Churches

from The Arthur Rank Centre

The latest resource for rural churches has just gone live on the Arthur Rank Centre website at http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications-and-resources/local-training-for-lay-people .

Members of rural churches play an essential part in the life of their communities. It is through the actions and initiatives of rural congregations that mission and ministry takes place in the countryside. Providing training to enable lay people to fulfil these roles and tasks is a vital part of the work of the modern rural church. 

This new resource provides examples of how lay people in rural churches have been trained and enabled for mission and ministry in their own local area.  It also contains guidance on the best approaches to providing training for rural congregations.  It contains:

·       practical resources that can be easily used

·       guidance on how to deliver training effectively

·       an evaluation of existing resources for their usefulness to rural congregations.

It is a unique tool to enhance and enable the mission and ministry of rural church members.

“The examples included here are just what hard-pressed rural congregations need; easy to use, simple to deliver and tailored for the unique circumstances of many rural churches. They are a real encouragement for rural churches to develop and equip their own lay people for service and mission” said Canon Dr Jill Hopkinson, National Rural Officer for the Church of England.

“The release of lay skills is absolutely crucial to rural mission and ministry. The Arthur Rank Centre is committed to being at the cutting edge of encouraging, supporting and helping train lay church members. These new resources are important step forward” said Jerry Marshall, CE0, Arthur Rank Centre.

The material adds to the large library of on-line resources for rural churches at www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk, ranging from worship material to evangelism training to community audits.

For more information please contact:

Jerry Marshall, 024 7685 3063  jerrym@arthurrankcentre.org.uk 

Website:  www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk

Jesus through the eyes of other cultures and Faiths.

A series of talks by Rev’d Dr John Parry

on

Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m.

April, 23, 30; May 7, 14, 21; June 4, 11, 2013

at

Deanway United Church, Chalfont St Giles

23 April         An over-view

We consider first the way in which the figure of Jesus has been presented in other parts of the world very much as a Westerner, reflecting our own culture and values. We’ll explore briefly each of the talks in the series through paintings, poetry and hymns and other writings.

30 April         African responses

How do African Christians respond to this figure of Jesus Christ?  We consider Jesus the Chief, the Ancestor, the Healer and Guide.  Then we need to explore the concept of Ubuntu – the recognition that the individual is part of something far greater than him or herself.  What does the ‘Body of Christ’ mean in the light of this concept?

07 May         Isa - the Muslim Christ

If you talk with Muslims they will affirm their belief in ‘all the Prophets’ including Jesus, known to Muslims as Isa.  So, what do they believe about him and the Virgin Birth? What was his message?  What relationship did he have with God?  And … what is this Trinity?

14 May         The ‘unbound’ Christ of India

Missionaries have been in India for quite a number of centuries.  The consequence is that Hindus have analysed the figure of Jesus of Nazareth through their own conceptual framework – we do the same thing when we’re confronted by things from different cultures.  Amongst other issues we’ll explore the ‘unbound’ Christ, that is, the Christ liberated, as they see it, from the ‘shackles’ of the Western Church.

21 May         Christian Indians respond to Jesus the Christ

But with the response we’ve seen above, how do Christian Indians respond.  Is it possible to be both Indian and Christian?  Of course it is!  But how?  There’s another issue here, that of the Dalit community, once known as ‘outcastes’.  What does the figure of Jesus crucified outside the city gate have to say to them?

28 May         It’s half-term.  We all get a break!

04 June        Jesus Christ through a Sikh’s eyes

Very few people express interest in the Sikh community – it’s a great pity.  Here’s a group of people who are monotheists, who live by and through the grace of God and who seek justice and integrity of faith.  A Sikh poet wrote a fascinating epic poem about Jesus of Nazareth – we explore that.

11 June        The Jewish Jesus

Our final meeting will consider the Jewish Jesus – that’s exactly what he was.  How does the Jewish community deal with this being who is so intriguing yet so divisive?

Enquiries to:   John Parry: 01494 872747.