Author Archives: Wesley

Creative for Climate Justice is an exciting new project which will see schools across Scotland creating artwork in response to climate justice, and those artworks will be brought together for an exhibition in the Scottish Parliament in September 2024.

In partnership with SCIAF and Oxfam, and supported by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, we are aiming to bring the voices of young people to Scotland’s leaders and share their thoughts on the climate emergency.

You can find more information here Creative for Climate Justice Scotland Resources – Christian Aid 

Christian Aid has been awarded £250,000 for communities impacted by loss and damage in Dasenech, South Omo, in southern Ethiopia. 

Christian Aid has worked in Ethiopia, through local partners, for 30 years.  Recently this area of Ethiopia has been impacted by severe drought followed by flooding, in repeating cycles.  It’s meant homes, livelihoods and livestock have been destroyed.

The Scottish Government ‘loss and damage’ funding, announced during COP28 will be used in several ways including to carry out repairs to damaged infrastructure like boreholes, re-training and job creation projects, a veterinary programme to boost the health of livestock and much needed psychosocial support for communities feeling traumatised.

You can find out more:  Loss and Damage funding for South Omo, Ethiopia – Christian Aid 

A new Lent Course, produced by Christian Aid, Baptist Union, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Church Action on Poverty, The Trussell Trust, and others. Together it enables churches and individuals UK-wide to gain a deeper understanding of experiences of poverty, local and global. We’ll be sharing stories of faith and activism that challenge the status quo. And we’ll be offering inspiration for actions big and small that we can all take to tackle poverty together.

Each pack contains:

• Guidance for a short Bible study
• Access to audio recordings of conversations featuring anti-poverty practitioners and activists, many with lived experience of poverty in the UK and worldwide
• Questions and prompts for small group discussion
• Inspiring videos from churches taking practical action on poverty
• A guide to simple steps your church can take to advocate for change

You can also use each pack as a standalone session to explore the issues most relevant for you.

Download the resources.

Unbounded Love is the theme of the Lent campaign for the Methodist Church in 2024 – holding together our commitments to be a justice-seeking church, and people who experience and proclaim the good news of God’s uncontainable love. Sign up for our daily reflection emails and find a range of resources that connect the Gospel readings from the Sunday lectionary throughout Lent to weekly themes, each one a line lifted from Charles Wesley’s hymn “Love divine, all loves excelling”.

• Access a webpage version of the worship resources
• Download a PDF version of the worship resources
  Resources for churches include a poster, ideas for either Sunday services or small groups, and a social media campaign pointing people to local churches.

Read the JPIT blog on how this evolved.

Poverty levels in the UK are in violation of international law, according to a UN envoy, last month. 

Read our JPIT’s blog post on poverty in the UK, and find out what you can do to respond: https://jpit.uk/poverty-in-the-uk

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Property Stewards’ Handbook!  
This handbook is design to be an across-the-board information resource for property stewards at a church, circuit and district level.  
It includes the Top 10 Essentials of being a property steward as well as other useful information and links. 
Click here to download a copy.

Stirling Methodist Church commissioned two banners to mark the COP 28 Conference starting this week. These now hang outside the church. Our thanks to David Crossley, a talented local artist, for the artwork and the donation of his time. We pray that the Conference will take some positive and radical decisions and these will be followed through by the governments of this world to preserve this wonderful planet.

Every Sunday at 7am the Circuit releases a video compiled by different people to offer an opportunity to worship from the comfort of your own home, as you nestle a hot cuppa. You have the choice to stop and start the video if you need to take a break or pray a wee while longer at a particular point.

The new link is https://www.youtube.com/@PollokshawsMethodist/videos

Pollokshaws are taking over from the closed Shettleston site and are merely acting as the digital mother church so we can stream the video across the circuit (and beyond) – it’s a bit like Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the Earth 😉

When a church ceases to meet, there are various steps that need to be taken as part of the closure process.  The Guidance on Closed Church Buildings was created collaboratively by the Conference Officer for Legal, Constitutional Practice, the Law and Polity Committee, TMCP, the Property Development Committee, the Heritage Committee and the Property Support team.  The aim of the guidance is to provide useful information, including a checklist and templates, to assist with this process.  

Click here to view a pdf version of checklist or click here for a Word version.

Additionally, click here for further pastoral support on Endings.