Author Archives: Wesley

Woodlands Methodist Church in Glasgow is pioneering several programs to help people struggling with addictions to alcohol, gambling and/or drugs.

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The Methodist Conference, which met recently in Birmingham this week, voted overwhelmingly  to recommit the Methodist Church to being a Justice-seeking Church.
The report received by the Conference hopes to encourage more Methodists in acting for justice, along with their local communities, and to focus efforts on contributing to change in key areas including poverty, refugees, the environment, discrimination and peace.
The report is the result of a two-year process of conversation and listening. This involved looking at how Methodists have worked for justice throughout their history and what is being done now, as well as hearing people’s experiences of injustice. The report involved churches, young people, communities and schools sharing their visions of what a just world looks like.

More information, and a link to the report.

Season of Creation/Creation Time/Creationtide 2023

At What Cost is a collaboration between Leeds Sanctuary, the Methodist Church in Leeds City Centre, and the Methodist Church in Manchester and Stockport, and addresses issues of the Cost of Living Crisis.

You can find their podcasts at https://soundcloud.com/leedssanctuary. Topics so far include Debt and Budgeting, A Theologica Perspective, Community Cafes, and lots more.

Just launched –  a new Bible animation made in Lego!  For a limited time you can download it completely free.

This short animation of the Good Samaritan would be ideal to use in church services, groups, schools or for personal/family use.

You can download it free either in 1) English with a Scottish accent or 2) Scottish Gaelic.

There’s also helpful teachers notes and a Lego schema to accompany the video.

Download free from this link: https://gochattervideos.com/the-good-samaritan-cos/

Massive thanks to Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Church of Scotland for making this project possible.

From Dan Rackham and the rest of the Go Chatter team 
(We had the pleasure of creating the animation!)

Cyclone Freddy has been a stark reminder of the loss, damage and destruction that can be caused by extreme weather.  In southern Malawi, storms, floods and droughts are destroying farmers’ crops. They’re losing vital income. It’s time to make polluters pay for loss and damage.

Use the updated church activity pack this Christian Aid Week to engage your church, community and local politicians on this vital issue Rise Up Pay Up- Church Activity Pack – Christian Aid.
There is also a range of worship resources, including a Bible study and prayers.

Disability charity Through the Roof has created a webpage to show churches and ministries where to find funding for building work to improve disabled access. It’s available now on their website and at this link: https://bit.ly/ObtainFunding

Katie Mobbs from Through the Roof shares: “I’m a Christian, and a wheelchair user. It can be challenging to access some church buildings in my wheelchair, as many have steps, heavy doors and fixed pews that limit access. Many churches want to open up their buildings more for disabled people but are not sure where to start. That’s why I’m excited about our webpage about funding for access improvements! I’d love all churches to know there are funding bodies that want to help – so please do visit the webpage and tell others about it.”

“My own church is really positive about disability inclusion and it is wonderful that they want to make sure everyone is able to have full accessibility and a chance to belong in church. We know that finances are tight for churches currently – so it is more important than ever to know how to get funds.”

Making your church more accessible is a journey – you don’t have to get everything right straight away. Just get started and remember that small things can make a big difference.

 Here are some key tips from : 

1) There are many different funding organisations for churches such as the National Churches Trust or the Benefact Trust – many offer advice as well as sources of funding.

2) If your church building is used for community activities, ensure you flag that to funders – many more funds are available for community-used buildings than for church-use alone.

3) Building work to provide access for disabled people is zero-rated for VAT – make sure you get an appropriate certificate to give to your builder so you don’t pay VAT.

 Through the Roof helps churches and Christian ministries become accessible with …                             

• a FREE 2 hour Zoom Disability Awareness workshop for churches who appoint a disability champion or ‘Roofbreaker’
• access to our free downloadable ‘Church Toolkit’ and ‘Removing Barriers’ church accessibility audit, available to all Roofbreaker disability champions
• ongoing support, monthly emails, events, Facebook and Roofbreaker Networks.

Find out how your church can be blessed by the full involvement of disabled people at: https://throughtheroof.org/forchurches/

The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church provide the following response to the publication on 27 April of the UK Government’s Gambling White Paper.

The Government’s White Paper, High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age, is a combination of welcome changes, disappointing delay in some important areas, and missed opportunities.

The Government has indicated that it will consult on the introduction of a number of measures that Churches have been calling for, which we believe are needed to prevent the harm caused by gambling.

Gambling costs in physical and mental health, relationships, jobs, families and has an impact on wider communities, and tragically, in extreme cases, it can lead to suicide.  Churches have long supported a statutory levy on gambling companies to contribute towards treatment and the prevention of harm.  The industry’s voluntary financial contribution has been inadequate so we welcome the Government’s decision to introduce a statutory levy.

In our submission to the Government’s consultation on the White Paper we highlighted evidence that young people aged 18-24 routinely have the highest rates of problem gambling. We are therefore encouraged to see that the Government will be consulting on additional protections for younger adults through some enhanced checks and limits on online stakes.  The Churches have for several decades campaigned in support of the principle that gambling is an adult activity, and so we welcome the plans at long last to legislate to ban children from Category D cash slot machines.

Recently a number of gambling companies have been fined for failing to carry out checks and allowing people to gamble and lose enormous amounts of money.  Many more will have simply lost more than they can afford, leading to cycles of debt, addiction and gambling harm.  The Government’s decision to consult on the introduction of financial risk checks to address binge gambling is welcome.

At the moment there are no statutory limits on stakes for online gambling.  Given the amount that people can lose online in a short space of time, the consultation on introducing a limit on stakes is welcome. However, this has to go hand in hand with other ways of making online gambling safer by design, looking at features such as the speed and volatility of play and the illusion of player control.

This white paper has sadly missed an opportunity to significantly strengthen controls on advertising.  Advertising is a powerful tool for normalizing gambling, particularly around sport.  Many young people who have a susceptibility to gambling say that advertising has affected their decisions to gamble.  By only offering limited consultation on marketing and voluntary codes, the Government is missing an opportunity to do much more to minimise the harm that gambling is causing particularly to young adults but also to those whose circumstances make them vulnerable.

The direction of travel within the White Paper is largely encouraging and responds to various concerns that Churches have raised over many years.  However, after waiting three years for this White Paper, it is frustrating to see how many of the changes will now be going out again to consultation, risking further delay and dilution.  We cannot afford further delay, and encourage the Government to ensure that gambling is indeed a public health priority.

• Revd Fiona E Bennett, Moderator of General Assembly, United Reformed Church
• Revd Karen Hendry, Convener pro tem, Faith Impact Forum, Church of Scotland
• Revd Graham Thompson, President of the Methodist Conference, The Methodist Church in Britain
• Revd Hayley Young, President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain