Category Archives: News

A New Year, A Shared Prayer: Voices for Haiti

We are delighted to launch Voices for Haiti, the first Methodist Church in Britain prayer campaign focused on one of our global church partners.

As a church committed to mission through partnership, prayer is a vital way we stand in solidarity, learn from one another, and seek God’s justice in the world.

This campaign invites us to listen carefully to Haitian voices and pray faithfully in the midst of ongoing crisis and hope. Please sign up, pray with us, and help widen this circle by sharing the invitation with others.
Share your prayers with us. We will be compiling the submitted prayers into a short film of prayers that will be shared with the Haiti District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas. More information below.

On 12 January, we mark 16 years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The country still needs our prayers.

Today, the country faces a new crisis—rampant gang violence that threatens lives and communities, not to mention the impact of last year’s hurricane Melissa. But hope remains.

Join Methodists across the UK and the Caribbean as we raise our Voices For Haiti in prayer and solidarity. Our campaign launches on 12 January.

Over six weeks, Haitians will share raw, personal stories from the current crisis—testimonies of resilience, resistance, and unwavering faith.

Click here to sign up today to be part of this journey from the very beginning. Receive weekly emails and commit to praying for Haiti with each story. Act now to ensure you don’t miss week one.

🙏Stand in solidarity by submitting your own prayer for Haiti

⛪Pray together with your church or small group using our downloadable prayer resource

👉 📲 🌐 Follow the campaign on our Facebook and Instagram. Like, share and spread the word with our #VoicesforHaiti posts.

Let’s stand with Haiti, lift up our voices and pray in faith, hope and love.

The Methodist Church has produced resources for Lent and Easter 2026.

Browse them

Encounter 2026 a Methodist exploration of discipleship & vocation

• Ever wondered what God is calling you to?
• Would you like to have a greater impact as a Christian disciple?

Make 2026 the year in which you join with others to explore your gifts and faith

“Encounter was a transformative journey, offering meaningful insights into ministry pathways within Methodism and helping me to discern how I might serve within this community.” Munawar, Encounter 2024

Encounter is…

• a place to deepen your awareness of God an opportunity to reflect on your faith journey a supportive small group environment for sharing and learning together
• starts February 2026 ~ ends November 2026

Taster sessions in January 2026

Thursday 15th, Monday 19th, Tuesday 27th all @7pm

Find out more and book your taster session – methodist.org.uk/encounter

Text of poster: Philippians Training Day 14 March 2026 10:00 to 15:00.
For Ministers, Local Preachers, Worship Leaders, Children and Youth Leader.

Local churches across the UK will already have well-developed plans for celebrating Christmas – both in our church buildings and with our wider communities. Each of us will have had a lifetime of sharing the message at the heart of Christmas, ‘good news of great joy… for all’.

But this year, we have seen a ‘turning up of the volume’ of far Right politics and the co-option of Christian language and symbols – including Christmas – for a nationalist agenda, overtly hostile to asylum-seekers and Muslims, and more covertly threatening to many more of us in our churches and neighbourhoods. 

This includes an event planned for central London on 13th December, led by ‘Tommy Robinson’ and ‘Unite the Kingdom’, with the explicit aim of ‘putting Christ back into Christmas’, but associated closely with aggressive patriotism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. We’ll be all too aware that within our church communities, and our wider neighbourhoods, there will be some people who find these events threatening or scary, some who will want to fiercely reject them, others who will be drawn to them for a variety of reasons, and still many others who will feel confused and bewildered by the mixed messages that they find themselves having to make sense of.

JPIT offers here a ‘rapid response’ resource for local churches wanting to navigate these complexities and discern faithful ways forward: to celebrate Christmas with a clear message of love for all our neighbours and (in small but significant ways) resisting agendas of division and hostility, while recognising that even within our own church communities there will very likely be a wide diversity of experiences, hopes and fears, and political views.

“Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.” John 16:20

Our prayers hold the sorrows and joys of our lives, churches and communities across this world.

For 2026/2027, the words Sorrow and Joy are chosen like grid references on a map, or compass bearings.

We invite you to respond in prayer faithfully and fruitfully as peace-makers and reconcilers to each other and the world – share prayers that recognise and support Methodist people who may need a boost of joy in the Lord, such as Church volunteers and those who minister in diverse and often challenging circumstances.

Find out about submitting to the Prayer Handbook here