Welcome to the Enews for October 17

The latest resources, news and more.

Click on headlines or pictures for more details.  

Contact enews@leeds.anglican.org with your news. 

Our Net Zero Carbon Quick Wins grants are still open, looking to support parishes that want to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings. The grants are part of our wider diocesan Church Buildings grant scheme. Read more here

The Diocese of Leeds is pleased to announce the new Chief Officer of Wellsprings Together, Siaa-Liane Mathurin. Siaa is a seasoned leader with a passion for Jesus, justice and working together with people to transform communities. Read more here

St Cross Church, Middleton, have recently celebrated the licensing of the Revd Olasupo Ogunyinka as their Interim Priest in Charge. The service for Revd Supo took place on Tuesday, September 24, and was conducted by the Ven Paul Ayers, Archdeacon of Leeds. Read more here

St Mary’s Swillington have been celebrating harvest and thinking about God’s generosity recently. At a service on Sunday, October 6, the church reflected on God’s gifts to us by preparing harvest gifts for a local community pantry, and by relaunching the Parish Giving Scheme. Read more here

Congregation members from Mirfield Team Parish, and Christ The King in Battyeford, enjoyed exploring with a pilgrimage & prayer walk recently. The route included stops at places of worship past and present for pilgrims to pray for the churches and communities. Read more here

Killinghall Church of England Primary School, Harrogate is celebrating a successful Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) inspection. In the report the inspector recognised that pupils and staff flourish because of the way in which the school’s Christian vision is alive in the school. Read more here

One of our Huddersfield area churches is hosting a conference looking at how we can be part of building a fairer society. The ‘Justice and the Economy’ conference is being hosted by Holy Nativity Mixenden on Saturday, November 2. Read more here

The Revd Phil Arnold and others from of Christ Church Armley walked across Leeds in order to raise money to help them go green. From Friday, October 4 to Sunday, October 6, Revd Phil led a small group on a 62-mile walk across Leeds as part of their involvement in the Church of England’s Give to Go Green initiative. Read more here

As part of Black History Month, the Church invites congregants to watch these films on Racial Justice – Visitor, Chocolate Digestive and After the Flood.

Visitor and Chocolate Digestive are short film

monologues by Testament, a West Yorkshire

performer, poet, and rapper, exploring racism

within the Church. These works, based on

interviews about systemic and personal racism,

were commissioned by the Leeds Church Institute and Bishop Smitha Prasadam.

After the Flood highlights the overlooked

history of African chattel slavery in British

Christian history and explores biblical

principles for racial reconciliation in today's

churches. Archbishop Stephen Cottrell

recommended it for Bible study and small

groups to reflect on being one in Christ.

Find out more here.

Harrogate School of Theology and Mission are pleased to offer a new autumn programme of lectures, with speakers including Dr David Moffit, the Revd Dr Alan Garrow, the Rt Revd Arun Arora, Bishop of Leeds, and more. All lectures are offered in person, at St Mark’s Harrogate, starting promptly at 10am, but preceded by breakfast. The lectures are also available by live-stream (on Zoom) but you’ll have to make your own breakfast!

Find out more and book here.

Hosted by Count Everyone In. Equipping churches in key word signing to be welcoming and accessible to adults with learning disabilities so that they can know Jesus and grow in their faith. Advance booking is essential as places are limited – £35 per person (bring your own lunch).

Find out more here.

A full day workshop exploring what we mean by silence and meditation with Dr Alison Woolley. Do you sometimes feel too busy and stretched too thin? Have you run out of words or given up trying to pray? Does your heart yearn for a deeper encounter with God, but feel abandoned when God seems silent or out of reach? If so, this experiential workshop may be for you! Cost: £17 - more details and booking information here.

Are you searching for peace and a deeper stillness in your life? Find out how meditation was rediscovered within the Christian tradition as a form of contemplative prayer and how it is practiced today by many Christians around the world. Each session will have a time of meditation.

Click here to find out more.

The topic is 'Helping Rural Churches Thrive'. Includes Holy Communion. Please RSVP governanceofficer@riponcathedral.org.uk by Friday, November 1 with any dietary requirements.

"Prayer in the Risen Lord: helps from scripture and the

saints."

Led by Br Philip Nichols, Prior. Before the busy-ness of December, this will be a day for refreshment and guided reflection in the peaceful, meditative surroundings of Mirfield. All most welcome.

Tea and coffee provided, bring your own lunch

Suggested donation: £10 (bring on the day)

To book your place email

caroline.asquith@leeds.anglican.org.

Now is the time to start exploring a vocation to Lay Ministry with your incumbent, your Episcopal Area Warden of Readers and/or the diocesan Vocations Team. 

Expressions of interest are invited for LLM training with a start date of September 2025.

Eligibility criteria, discernment information and details of the application process together with an Expression of Interest form have been sent to all incumbents, chaplaincy team leaders, PCC Secretaries and Churchwardens in September 2024. A reminder will be sent in early January 2025. The deadline for an expression of interest is Monday, March 3, 2025. 

Application/sponsor/referee forms are only sent out after an expression of interest has been received.

Click here to find out more.

If you require any specific help or information, please contact the Ministerial Development Administrator at shuna.hartley@leeds.anglican.org.

Ever wondered what theology means and how to study it? Need some guidance on how to dig a bit deeper? Don’t know where to start? This free and updated course is for you! Don’t miss out - sign up now for a March start.

Introduction to Theology (ITT): A 12-session journey looking at the Christian faith, thinking about your own faith journey and developing theological skills. This is a great place to start when considering where God is calling you. Attending this course is a pre-requirement for Licensed Lay Ministry training in the diocese of Leeds and is also useful for those considering any of our other Lay Ministry pathways.

Click here to find out more.

Booking deadline is Sunday, March 9, 2025.

If you require any specific help or information, please contact the Ministerial Development Administrator at shuna.hartley@leeds.anglican.org.

This day will invite you to focus on a sculpture and see if you can relate it to a Bible theme or passage to create prayers. There will be 12 bronze sculptures to choose from. To book, please contact Fiona Hill on fiona@stbedes.org.uk.

The Friends of All Saints’ Ch urch, Kirkby Overblow present Ko's Magnificent Music. Come and listen to classic vinyl tracks played on amazing vintage sound equipment.

A show over two evenings in All Saints’ Church, Kirkby Overblow.

On Thursday, October 24 there is a Come and Listen Night, the opportunity to sit back and listen to Pink Floyd’s Masterpiece - Dark Side Of The Moon, from a rare ‘Master Pressing’! And the classic Genesis Studio Album – Foxtrot and some of their other hits. All introduced by Graham Chalmers of the Harrogate Advertiser.

Bar opens at 7.00pm . The Music starts at 7.30.

On Friday, October 25 there is a Social Evening, where all the music will be selected by you! Bring your favourite vinyl records and we will have a Juke Box Raffle!

Your DJ for the evening is our very own Lindsay McKenzie

Bar opens at 7.00pm with the show starting at 7.30.

Tickets are £12.50 per evening or £20.00 for both evenings.

To buy tickets please click here.

The events will be supporting: St Michael’s Hospice, Harrogate Community Radio and Friends.

A service of remembrance for anyone affected by the loss of a baby at any stage of pregnancy, at birth or in infancy, whether recently or historically, and for those grieving never having had children.

Organised in partnership with the Mariposa Trust.

Find out more here.

You are warmly invited to a special service of Lutheran Choral Vespers at St Michael's Headingley on Sunday 27th October at 6.30pm to celebrate Reformation Sunday (a day to remember the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Europe) and to celebrate ecumenical links between Anglicans and Lutherans.

The service follows the order for vespers (evening prayer) in the Lutheran tradition, and brings together congregations in Leeds from the Church of England and Lutheran Church in Great Britain. All are warmly invited to enjoy the beautiful words and music sung by the choir of St Michael’s Church (CofE).

Are we making disciples here?

As church leaders, we can be so busy worrying about the ABCs (attendance, buildings, and cash) that we lose sight of our main purpose: making disciples of Jesus. If that sounds familiar and you’d like to reinvigorate your disciplemaking ministry, this day is for you and your team. Discover what LICC has learnt about how to create a whole-life disciplemaking culture, and use our major new resource, Vital Signs, to put that wisdom into practice in your particular church.

‘Whole-life disciplemaking’ means equipping Christians to join in with what God’s doing in every part of their lives – at work, at home, in hobbies, pubs, clubs, and beyond. Because his mission goes far beyond our church-organised programmes, into the whole world. And so do our people. Vital Signs identifies 20 key ways you can put that kind of discipleship at the heart of your church culture.

The day will be led by LICC’s Ken Benjamin, former President of Baptists Together and author of the Vital Signs book, and Vaughan Pollard an Associate Speaker for LICC. Between them, they have decades of experience of both leading whole-life disciplemaking churches and equipping leaders to do the same.

Designed for anyone in any kind of church leadership, this day will be filled with practical advice, biblical insights, and opportunities to discuss with peers from other churches. It’s the perfect way to get equipped and inspired for whole-life ministry. Together, we will:

• Explore the biblical vision for whole-life disciplemaking
• Share principles and processes to make whole-life discipleship possible
• Introduce the 20 vital signs as a practical way to embed whole-life discipleship
• Show you how to make the most of the Vital Signs resources in your own context

Click here to find out more.

A series of five lectures at St.Cuthberts Church, Pateley Bridge, HG3 on Wednesday evenings at 6.30 for 7.00pm between September and January.

• Religious Experience - Wednesday, November 13, 2024
• Faith and Reason - Wednesday, December 11, 2024
• What is Christianity? - Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Whilst booking is not essential, due to high demand it would help if anyone who wants to attend could advise the Revd Darry Hall on horlix@aol.com.

Join us for the 36th Joseph Winter Memorial Lecture, part of a long-standing tradition of distinguished speakers engaging with the ecumenical community. Everyone is warmly invited to attend.

For further details, contact Deacon Ronnie Aitchison. Phone: 07940 110793

Email: ronnie@raitchison.co.uk

Annual Subscriptions will be due & payable on this day. Please bring your own lunch. Everyone is welcome!

Please bring your own robes. New members can be admitted during the Eucharist Service.

If you need any further information, please contact

Chapter Secretary: Sue Middleditch

T: 0113 2643946 M: 07976 209127

E: middleditch@live.com

An invitation to enjoy singing wonderful traditional choral music in beautiful St Margaret's Church. Rehearsal at 3pm; refreshments at 4.15pm; evensong at 5pm. To book your place, contact Christopher Rathbone on saintmargaretschoirs@gmail.com, by Sunday, November 10. No experience needed!

Gareth Davies-Jones - singer, songwriter, story-teller and producer has been writing, recording and performing as a professional musician for twenty years. From community halls to concert halls, from rural heartlands to the heart of the city he has travelled the length and breadth of the country armed with a rich distinctive voice and now two decades worth of perceptive and compelling songwriting spanning some sixteen albums and song-writing collaborations. Having garnered a loyal following on the independent roots/acoustic scene, his performances are known for gathering people together, inviting audiences to travel with him into a world of landscapes, history, characters and causes all underpinned with assured vocals and the warmth and vibrancy of a beautifully played array of stringed instruments.

From stories of heroism on the Irish Sea to gentle praise for a beguiling Loire Valley village, from insight into the lives of pitman painters to the moving response of nineteenth century Belfast women to deadly famine, “All Things Come” sets out to share a life in song-writing to warm the heart and soul.

Find out more here.

With Philip Wilby on the organ. Highlights will include Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and popular organ favourites.

Entry £5 Donation (Children Free)

Proceeds in aid of Holy Trinity Church, Dacre Banks.

The Diocese of Leeds is seeking to appoint a priest or lay person with passion and aptitude for advancing its ambitious racial justice programme. As well as being an experienced, collaborative leader, they will be an inspiring and creative trainer, capable of developing and delivering contextually appropriate training pathways. They will serve as Programme Lead for a funded three year programme with three strands: advancing learning, advancing ministry and advancing engagement. Implementation of the overall programme will be overseen by a programme board, chaired by the Lead Bishop for Racial Justice. Find out more about this role here

Every Good Work is a project growing new young disciples across the city of Wakefield. The Project involves the Diocese of Leeds is working in partnership with three local churches who have a strong track record of serving their local communities. National funding has been made available for them to work together with other local partners to engage with young people in schools and other settings, to work with them in developing social justice projects, and to develop new worshipping communities that are shaped by and ultimately led by young people. It is intended that over 200 young new disciples will be involved in these new worshipping communities by 2028. In the first year of the project we have already connected with over a thousand young people. St George's are seeking a youth worker who will help them deliver this vision alongside committed church leaders and a broader support team. The youth worker will be based at a St George’s Church, Lupset and will work with the team to develop and deliver the project over five years. Find out more about this role here

Please contact the Communications Team with your news for future editions. The Enews is published twice a month. The next edition will be sent out on October 31. All news stories to communications@leeds.anglican.org. Many thanks!