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Diocesan Enews
Welcome to the Enews for 7 January

The latest resources, news and more.
Click on headlines or pictures for more details.  
Contact [email protected] with your news. 
News
Churches can continue to open for worship during the new lockdown announced on Monday night, but there is no obligation to do so and local decisions will be supported by our bishops, writes Bishop Nick. Read the full letter from Bishop Nick, which was sent to all clergy and parishes, here.
New grants for 2021 to help support our listed churches are now available as part of the Cultural Recovery Fund - with three weeks to apply. The Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage has just been announced and the closing date for application is January 26. Read more here
The rebirth of Holy Trinity, Boar Lane is nearly complete as builders put the finishing touches to the new-look city centre worship hub. The Revd Sam Corley, Rector of Leeds, said its redesigned and refurbished interior will be ready to reveal to the public in the New Year. Read more here
The Diocese of Leeds Education Team have launched a new hub to help parents with home schooling. The Home Learning Support Hub can be found on the diocese’s Digital Learning Platform, and has a list of quality learning resources identified by members of the Education Team. Read more here
A new series of video challenges from our Children, Young People and Families Team is aiming to help people keep their Faith at Home. The 12 videos will be released over the coming weeks, with a new message or story to engage with each time. Read more here
At the start of 2021, parishioners are invited to join and take part in a number of supportive online communities set up by the Diocese of Leeds. Hosted on Facebook, these private groups have been created to offer a safe space to share tips, good news and ideas. Each has its own particular emphasis. Read more here
Grants, awarded to parishes by the Diocese of Leeds in 2020, have enabled emerging mission projects to take place. The Emergence Mission Grants scheme was launched back in June to facilitate initiatives that allow church mission to flourish in the current context or to revive work that may have stalled. Read more here
The completion date for Statistics for Mission data has been put back until Easter 2021 due to the impact on parishes of COVID-19. Churches are usually asked to complete Statistics for Mission (SfM) by January 31. Read more here
The climate crisis is being put at the heart of plans from St George’s Leeds for this year, with a new series of training events launching this month. The free programme of virtual sessions aims to help take individuals and churches on a journey of learning, prayer and action, preparing people to confront the climate crisis head on. Read more here
The Children, Young People and Families team are seeking feedback from parishes who used the Advent Rhythm of Life resources, to help them plan resources for Lent and the rest of the church year. A brief feedback form can be accessed here. They'd also love to know if you used the Prayer for Schools leaflet; if you did please contact them with your comments on [email protected] – please also use this email address if you would like a paper copy of the feedback form. 
Christmas Across Our Region
Boxing Day is a time to reflect and refresh our attitudes, writes Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, in the Yorkshire Post. Read her full reflection here on the Diocese of Leeds website.
God becomes unmasked with the birth of Jesus, explains Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines in his Christmas message after an extraordinary year. In a special video now on our homepage, Bishop Nick thanks everyone across our diocese for keeping hope alive, when the world has seemed sometimes dark and fearful. Read more here
The caring work of so many folk across our diocese is captured in the efforts of Cleckheaton Foodbank, which is led by Churches Together. It began as an immediate response to the COVID-19 crisis by local Anglicans Revd Brunel James and Josie Pugsley and Methodists Revd Ray Borrett and Alan Littlewood. Read more here
As Christmas approached in December in ever-changing times, the Dean of Wakefield, Simon Cowling reflected on Christianity’s proven endurance in this recently published opinion piece. Read more here
St George's Church in Leeds, determined to share hope and joy at Christmas, produced a short video called Christmas Hope. With a team of creatives, an original spoken word was written especially for 2020, accompanied by an original arrangement of Hark the Herald Angels sing, arranged by Dan Hebden, the Worship Pastor. Read more here
Events and Training
On Tuesday, January 19 at 7.30pm Churchwardens from all Archdeaconries are welcome to a training evening on Zoom.
This is a basic training session for anyone elected churchwarden for the first time, coming back to being churchwarden after a break or those who would like a refresher. Find out more and how to book here
The Stewardship and Income Generation team is introducing monthly grant surgeries. These will be held on the first Thursday of each month at 12 noon and 6pm, to talk about available grants and discuss the application process. Links for the surgeries will be published in Money For Mission and their first surgery will be on Thursday 4th February. Find out more here
The Introduction to Theology 12 session course offers an opportunity to reflect upon the Christian faith and deepen your own personal journey. This course will run across three study days online, with a Sunday study day (9.00am-4.00pm) each month from January to March 2021. Find out more here
Resources
A new series of video challenges from our Children, Young People and Families Team is aiming to help people keep their Faith at Home. The 12 videos will be released over the coming weeks, with a new message or story to engage with each time. The videos are designed to be used by individuals and churches, at toddler groups, Messy Churches, Sunday gatherings, food banks, midweek groups and anywhere else that you can use them. Find out more here
The Diocese of Leeds Education Team have launched a new hub to help parents with home schooling. The Home Learning Support Hub can be found on the diocese’s Digital Learning Platform, and has a list of quality learning resources identified by members of the Education Team. These include general resources from places such as the Oak National Academy, BBC Teach and Seneca. Find out more here
Living in Love and Faith (LLF), The Church of England’s landmark set of resources on questions of identity and which draws together the Bible, theology, science and history with powerful real-life stories has now been published. The product of three years’ work, led by the Bishop of Coventry, includes a 480-page book, a series of films and podcasts, a course and an online library of other publications. Find out more here
An all-in-one toolkit to help churches showcase their videos. Perhaps you are looking for a platform to share your videos, without the distractions of Facebook and YouTube? Something branded like your website but without the hassle of having to do coding? If so then find out here what Faithly can offer and how their platform can help.
Resources to encourage children, young people and families to join the Rhythm of Life adventure this advent have been launched. The initiative aims to promote healthy habits, such as praying, encouraging, sharing, reflecting, celebrating, resting and creating to help us flourish. Find out more by accessing the web page here.
Further Christmas resources for children and young people can be found here.
Dignity Through Education is an association set up by a group of people in Bilton, Harrogate. It aims to give financial assistance to the children of some of the poorest people in Sri Lanka. These people are tea plantation workers. They live and work in some of the harshest conditions
imaginable. The association aims to offer small bursaries to the children of tea plantation workers who have achieved a place at university. Find out more here
As the country continues to react to the coronavirus, government guidance on what we can and can't do in places of worship continues to change on a regular basis. To keep updated on the most recent guidance from the government and the Church of England, make sure to regularly visit our COVID-19 website section. Find out more here
The latest edition of the Prayer Diary is now online to download.There are fresh prayers for Sudan as well as prayers for Tanzania. Download prayers here.
Media
Throughout Advent, we received wonderful music from churches across our diocese. Watch a collection of some of them here. We'd love to be able to continue to share music, to encourage everyone to join in. Send your recorded worship to us at [email protected]
Here is our Disability Advisor, Katherine-Alice, telling us all about a new disability strategy to help us be more accessible, inclusive and diverse. Watch the video here and read the new strategy document here.
 ...is the name of Bishop Nick's blog and his most recent entries can be viewed here.
Vacancies
Holy Trinity Huddersfield is a growing, all-age, Anglican Church. Their vision is “to make committed followers of Jesus, and to share his transforming love”. They are seeking a gifted and skilled person with a passion for and proven professional experience in administration to fulfil the role of a Church Administrator. For more details of this role and how to apply click here
An opportunity has arisen to lead St Matthew's CE (VC) Primary School on its continuing journey. For more details of this role and how to apply click here
The parish of Almondbury and Farnley Tyas has a committed church family, who seek to share God’s love with the wider community. They are willing and eager to work with a new Rector to develop new styles of worship which will engage families and young people. For more details of this role click here
Seacroft are looking for a new Team Rector who is committed to on-the-ground Church of England ministry in a challenging part of East Leeds but can also lead a strategy for numerical church growth. For more details of this role click here
The Eldwick Church is a thriving 10-year -old Anglican-Methodist LEP, which has recently completed a major building project. They have clear aspirations and objectives to continue to grow the church both spiritually and numerically, and serve the local community. For more details of this role click here
Useful links & Information
For safeguarding issues, contact: 
Carla Darbyshire 07399 809732 or
Jenny Leccardi 07872 005189 or
Narinder Lyon 07872 005309
Moves and Appointments

Revd Abbie Palmer to be Priest in Charge of the Parish of St Stephen Lindley (Huddersfield EA)

Revd Mike Coe to be Area Dean and Revd Helen Collings to be Assistant Area Dean of South Craven and Wharfdale (Bradford EA)

Revd Tracy Milne as Area Dean and Revd Lucy Wormsley as Assistant Area Dean of Outer Bradford (Bradford EA)
The Who's Who directory lists clergy & diocesan staff (email addresses & phone numbers). Access it here 
Contact us with your news
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 January 21. Area news stories to [email protected]  
© Anglican Diocese of Leeds, 2021
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