WMCFEC
Pray with us for your local FE College, it staff and students. FE Sunday is back for its fourth year on Sunday 18th May, with new video and written material to help you pray for your local college. A brand new recorded service will launch in the week prior to FE Sunday. Watch this space for further details, and visit the FE Sunday website and our FE Sunday page for more.
Festive have produced a new podcast – Beautiful Feet – specially for Christian sixth form/college students. Have a listen here!
If you work in chaplaincy, you’ll be interested to know of a new podcast exploring all things chaplaincy, courtesy of the Free Churches Group – click here for the first episode!
[podcast icon credit: podcast icon by HRF07 from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)]
Further Education Sunday 2023 is coming – on 14 May!
FE Sunday is a great time to pray for your local college and consider how to love and serve it better. Visit our brand new website fe-sunday.uk, developed in partnership with Festive, for videos, downloadable prayer resources and ideas for worship and action. You can also keep up to date on Twitter and tweet what you’re doing for FE Sunday, using the hashtag #FESunday2023
FE Sunday is back on 14 May 2023 – a great opportunity to pray for your local college, its staff and students, and to consider how you could serve your local college better. More details to follow, including a brand new, bespoke FE Sunday website, with new resources, materials and topis for 2023.
Watch this space!
Interested in starting a conversation about the place of religion/belief/worldview in the contemporary world? This collection of short films funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust, and featuring public figures from a variety of different faiths/beliefs, may be of interest.
Reflecting on Chaplaincy is a new series of short videos started by FE Chaplaincy Ambassador Nigel Roberts, to encourage and inspire those engaged in chaplaincy in FE. You can find the full playlist on WMCFEC’s YouTube channel.
On 29 April the Church of England launched their new report on the Church’s engagement with the Further Education sector… and we’re in it! Vocation, Transformation and Hope recommends local churches take an intentional approach to partnering with their local college through chaplaincy or other forms of shared contribution to the life of the community. It’s also recommended that Anglican dioceses build a strategy for FE into their strategic planning, and revitalise a network of paid or voluntary FE development officers – a bit like the WM’s own FE Chaplaincy Ambassador.
You can read a summary and download the full report here.
ROUNDED – Ready for Life is WMCFEC’s new interactive, flexible format resource for exploring key character dispositions with 16-19s. The resource covers six themes common to many religions and worldviews, from a broad Christian perspective, through a 10 minute ineractive PowerPoint film plus a suite of supporting activities that can be tailored to group size, time and space available.
ROUNDED has been created by Simeon Whiting, commissioned by WM Churches’ FE Council and designed by Mazo Creative Agency, with voice work from the Saltmine Theatre Company.
You can download ROUNDED here (link to Google Drive).
Recently 175 people participated in the webinar Chaplaincy, Wellbeing and Faith, with speakers including Dr Justin Varney, Director of Public Health for Birmingham, and Carol Wilson, Head of Spiritual Care for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. You can watch the webinar here. Thanks to Paul Chesterman and David Butterworth of Birmingham Methodist District’s Mission in the Economy team, for sharing this. Their latest newsletter also includes a piece from WM FE Chaplaincy Ambassador Phil Metcalf. Sign up for this newsletter by emailing paul.chesterman[at]birminghammethodist.org.uk.