Please contact the Revd Stuart Scott for details of forthcoming Lay
Training
events on 01384 827728 or email: Laytraining@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
Please contact Revd Dr John
Burgess for details of forthcoming Ministerial Training events on 01934
861164 or email:
john@spiritualseekers.co.uk
Please click here for more information on TLS
on the National United Reformed Church Website
The Art of Enabling Sacred Space:
Boundaries, power and vulnerability in ministry
25th
February 2010 Potters Green URC, Coventry
This day long event begins and ends with
worship, an will engage in four sessions:
Boundaries,
power and vulnerability
What is a boundary? When is it appropriate to cross
one? How much power does a
minister really have? What
role do transference and counter-transference play in the relationship
between minister and church member?
The day
to day challenge of boundary-making and boundary-keeping
Do my personal relationships affect the
congregation? May I have
friendships in the congregation? Who
can I date? What do I do
about dual relationships?
Sex and
Ministry
Are hugging, touch or intimacy ever appropriate
between minister and church member?
Why may ministers be twice as likely to transgress sexual
boundaries as secular counsellors?
What is the impact of clergy sexual misconduct on others?
Taking
Good Care
How can self-awareness help me to enable sacred
space? What triggers my
desire? Am I taking good
care of myself? What do I
need?
For more details contact Rachel Vernon on admin@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
or John Burgess on ministerialtraining@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
HOPE IN GOD'S FUTURE
THE
IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND OUR RESPONSE
Wednesday
4th November
Carrs Lane URC, Birmingham
10.30 – 4.00pm.
Revd Dr.
Rosalind Selby will speak on the ecumenical climate change theology
report ‘Hope in God’s Future’
Workshops
include:
·
Transition
Towns
·
Energy
Saving in your church
·
How
the poorest countries are adapting
·
Campaigning
with Christian Aid and Operation Noah
·
Communication
·
Bible
study
Workshop
Leaders include:
·
Dave
Coaker, Creation Challenge
·
David
Pickering, Operation Noah
·
Revd
Dr Rosalind Selby
·
Charles
Jolly, Transition Town, Buxton, Creation Challenge
Please
reply to: Gill Hillman (Commitment for Life Programme Administrator) if
you would like to attend. Email: gill.hillman@urc.org.uk
020
7691 9867
Drinks will be available but please make provision for your own lunch.
Organised
by the Mission Team climate Change task group of the United Reformed
Church
If
you would like to download a copy of this leaflet please click here
If you would like to download a copy
of this leaflet please click here
Tuesday
15th September 2009 - 10.15 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.
Olton
United Reformed Church
Kineton
Green Road, Olton Solihull B92 7EB
This
day for ministers is being arranged following a number of recently
expressed concerns by ministers in the Synod about issues involving pay,
Income Tax, and retirement. The
day will be facilitated by staff from URC Church House, London.
There
will be presentations about finance and retirement and the staff will be
available to answer your questions on matters of finance, payroll,
income tax, plan for partnership, retirement provision, pensions and
housing.
The
Finance Department are willing to provide a pension quote for all
participants provided they receive at least 2 weeks notice.
But please note that the team are not Financial Advisors and so
are unable to give advice on financial matters.
Closing
date for registrations: 31st
August 2009
If you
have a particular question that you would like the staff to address
please e-mail it, well in advance, to John Burgess at: ministerialtraining@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
Registration
forms from : Ms Rachel Vernon, Synod Office, Digbeth-in-the-field URC,
Moat Lane, Yardley, Birmingham, B26 1TW or email: admin@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
or tel: 0121 783 1177
Getting Ready for Vision4Life –
Transformed through Prayer
7.00
p.m., Tuesday 3rd November 2009
Trinity Church, Stafford.
This
Advent sees the beginning of second year of the Vision4Life programme.
The 3 year programme is designed to encourage churches and
members throughout the URC to engage more closely with the Bible, Prayer
and Evangelism. Resource
material is being sent to all the churches and additional material is
available on the Vision4Life
website (www.vision4life.org.uk).
Many
churches have been using the resources during the year of the Bible to
encourage and develop Bible study among their members.
The second year focuses on Prayer.
The
evening will be facilitated by the Training team. It will include an introduction to next year of Vision4Life
and new ways of developing personal and communal prayer.
During the evening you will learn:
- How
to encourage Vision4Life
in your church
- How
to use the material and resources
- How
to be pray more effectively
More
information and registration forms from: Ms Rachel Vernon, Synod Office,
Digbeth-in-the-field URC, Moat Lane, Yardley, Birmingham, B26 1TW or
email: admin@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
or tel: 0121 783 1177
JOHN
OMAN CONFERENCE
Call
for Papers:
Proposals of papers are
invited for a conference to mark the work and legacy of the renowned
Scottish Theologian & Philosopher of Religion, The Revd Professor
John Oman (1860-1939) sometime Principal of Westminster College,
Cambridge and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of England.
15-17th
September 2009, Westminster College, Cambridge, UK
Suggested, but not exclusive, topics for papers
are: the historical, ecclesial and theological context of late 19th
/and early 20th Century Reformed Theology in Scotland
and England; Oman’s philosophy of religion; his doctrine of God; Oman
as pastor; Oman as theological educator; Oman’s understanding of
revelation; Oman’s Christology; Oman’s missiology; Oman’s ethical
theory.
Submissions of proposals by 16th January
09, up to a maximum of 400 words, to Revd Dr Adam Hood, The Queen’s
Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Somerset Road,
Birmingham, B15 2QH, ah@bham.ac.uk
MA
MISSION MINISTRY 2009
MA/PG
Diploma in Consultancy for Mission and Ministry at
York St John University
This is
a 2 year part-time, part distance-learning, course in which the focus is
the work context of each student. A substantial proportion of the
three annual 4 day residentials is given over to co-consultancies,
examining issues chosen by the students. The main learning modules
of missiology, organisational studies and consultancy theory are then
integrated into the student's own experience as a means of formulating a
consultancy model consistent with personal theological convictions.
The course will be
particularly helpful to those who:
-
Work with others formulating and implementing strategy
-
Have oversight of others including work consultancy
-
Help and support church and community
(including project) development.
Full information can be found on
the web-site of The York Institute for Community Theology: www.theologyinthecommunity.org.uk
For a conversation contact:
Dr Helen Cameron, wytham@globalnet.co.uk,
Tel 01865 721422
or
Revd Ian Johnson, ian.johnson@thornton-le-moor.co.uk.
Tel 01609 770853
The New Lichfield M.A. in Theology, Context and the
Pastoral Imagination
The M.A. was launched through a Summer School at
Bishop’s House in Lichfield at the end of August 2008 with fourteen
students in the first year. The first module: God,
Human Culture and Salvation,
led by Adrian Dorber (Dean of Lichfield), included lectures from Prof.
Michael Wheeler, the Rt Revd Gordon Mursell (Bishop of Stafford) and Dr
Jane Gledhill. There was also a field trip to Walsall, the town and the
Art Gallery, and the course ended with a viewing of part of Mike
Leigh’s film ‘Happy go Lucky.’
Course
Outline:
This
M.A. is shaped by its three key themes. The starting point is Theology
which belongs to
several contexts: the Church, the Academy and the Public Square; it is
diminished if it is excluded from any. Theology is central to the design
of the course and all modules relate to it through a reflective
inter-connectedness. For example aspects of Doctrine will be illustrated
with reference to literature the arts and film as well through cultural
and intellectual history. Studying Context involves not just
geography but historical and contemporary contexts. Attention will be
given to ways in which past context contributes to present culture. The
term context will include investigation of a variety of socio-cultural
contexts found across the West Midlands, from multi-ethnic, interfaith
inner city contexts to deeply rural ones. The Pastoral Imagination explains
the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship
between need and care. Through an interpretation of these different
facets of corporate life it will be possible to understand how different
communities and Churches are sustained.
The Pastoral Imagination is also the means through which
different facets of learning and experience relate as well as providing
a forum for interdisciplinary debate.
If you would like to download a full copy of this
information please click
here (This will open in a new window).
If you would like to download a copy
of this poster please click here
(This will open in a new window as a PDF file).
If you would like to download a copy
of this poster please click here
(This will open in a new window as a PDF file).
EDUCATION
FOR MINISTRY
Education for ministry is a lifelong process and
this education depends on both experience and learning.
For Ministers of Word and Sacrament and CRCWs the United Reformed
Church provides and supports education through formal and informal
opportunities.
The four years at college are phase one of the
programme (EM1) during which time a person prepares for ministry through
formal theological education.
Following commissioning or ordination, phase two
begins (EM2.) EM2 consists
of a programme of training events, organised both at Assembly level and
Synod level. These consist
of weekends and day courses to help the ministers and CRCWs to reflect
upon their ministry and develop and hone skills needed for their
ministerial context. EM2
normally lasts for three years.
The third phase of education (EM3) is a lifelong
phase during which ministers and CRCWs organise their own programme of
learning, reflection and training to develop their personal spirituality
and ministry, and to keep abreast of biblical, theological and
ecclesiological developments in a rapidly changing world. Each minister
is encouraged to take two weeks of study leave each year, a refresher
course every seven years and a three month sabbatical every ten years.
In addition, day seminars, minister’s days and a ministers’
summer conference are organised by the synod every year.
Ministers and CRCWs are encouraged to keep an EM
Folio of courses attended, educational events, learning experiences,
together with reflections on these events in the context of the
person’s faith and ministry. These
Folios may then be used to help with self-appraisal and to develop a
long term educational strategy.
Some of the ways that ministers and CRCWs have
recently used their EM3 allowance are:
-
Undertaking
a study programme leading to a formal qualification such as
an MA or a Doctor of Ministry.
-
Taking
part in day courses on such subjects as developing worship, using
Multimedia, emerging church or evangelism.
-
Attending
a series of lectures at a college or university, on such subjects as
Biblical studies.
-
An
Ignatian retreat.
-
Joining
a Preaching Congress.
And some recent sabbaticals have been used
for:
-
Writing
a book of reflections for worship.
-
Visiting
an overseas partner church.
-
Researching
local church history.
-
Reading
and reflecting upon the Early Church Fathers.
-
Going
on pilgrimage to Rome
-
Developing
the art of storytelling, through its use in different cultures
GRANTS
FOR EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY
The Church provides grants for education for
ministry. An EM3 grant of
£350 per year is available during the EM2 period, and on completion of
EM2, £700 per year is available for courses, travel and books.
Up to £1200 is available for sabbatical costs.
In addition grants are available from the Belonging to the World
Church Programme to facilitate overseas travel.
A maximum of £350 is offered for travel to North America or
Europe, and £750 for the rest of the world (excluding the Holy Land,
for which alternative funding is available).
The Belonging to the World Church Grant cannot be given more than
once every five years.
More information about grants and Education for
Ministry can be found in the booklets “Learning
for Life”, “Making it Work”
and “Education for Ministry Phase 2”
or contact the Synod Ministerial Training Officer, Rev. Dr. John
Burgess.
Storytelling
for Worship and Evangelism
10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m., Saturday 14th
November 2009
Lea Road URC, Wolverhampton WV3 0LW
This
day workshop is for Ministers, Lay Preachers and Church leaders, and
will be facilitated by Hilary Watkins of Ragbag Arts. Hilary has
experience in taking stories from the written page, crafting and telling
them as oral stories in the context of worship.
The
day will include some background principles of story telling through
presentations, and exercises in reading, writing and telling stories, so
that at the end of the day participants will have gained some knowledge
and experience in preparing and telling stories.
The
workshop is open to all Ministers, Lay preachers, and leaders within the
Church who feel their ministry would benefit from gaining some
experience in the art of storytelling.
Because of the nature of the workshop there will be a limited
number of places available so it is important to register as soon as
possible so that you will not be disappointed.
Lea
Road URC is accessible by public transport and also has good car parking
(see over).
Please
bring a packed lunch. Tea,
coffee and soup will be provided.
For more information and registration forms for
all these events please contact Rachel Vernon in the Synod Office
Email: admin@urcwestmidlands.org.uk
, or John Burgess ministerialtraining@urcwestmidlands.org.uk.
Downloadable Forms -
To view one of the files here - click on the link. To download a file -
right click and select "Save Target As.."
Grant
application form BWC-G Belonging to the World Church EM3 Grant Application Form.
Grant application form BWC-GH - Belonging to the World Church CME Grant
Application Form. (This
form is for travel which is exclusively
to the Holy Land).
BWC-R - International Exchange Sub-Committee
- Belonging to the
World Church CME Grant Report Form
CME Grant Form G1 - Application for Approval and Reimbursement of the
costs of Continuing Ministerial Education - Those eligible for
Continuing Ministerial Education (CME) Support.
CME
Report Form R1 - Continuing Ministerial Education Report
CME
sabbatical Report R2 - Continuing Ministerial Education Sabbatical
Report.
CME
Expense Claim Form
Sabbatical
Document - Application for Approval and Reimbursement of Cost for
Sabbatical Leave
These forms will open a new document in Microsoft Word
These files are in Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF format. In order to read them
you must have Adobe Acrobat installed on your system. (This program is
often supplied free with software as a reader for
the on-line instruction manuals accompanying the program). If you don't
have this you can download it from Here
|
