|
Ecumenical Events and News
Churches in the Bolton and Rochdale
District are part of either Churches Together in Lancashire, or Greater
Manchester Churches Together.
Churches Together in Lancashire -
includes Chorley and Rossendale Circuits
Greater Manchester Churches Together
- includes Bolton, Bolton Mission, Farnworth & Worsley, Rochdale, Wigan,
Leigh & Hindley, Bury & Heywood, Prestwich & Radcliffe, and
Littleborough Circuits.
Most Churches are also part of local
ecumenical groups.
______________________
Events
Project
promoted by Christians Together in Bolton Town Centre, the Town Centre
Chaplaincy and Bank Street Unitarian Chapel
Night
Time Cafe
OPENING
on
5th July
2008
at
Bank
Street
Chapel,
Bolton
You
can be a vital part of this in one or more of the following ways:
ü
Be
a trained regular helper every/any Saturday 8pm till 2am during the pilot period
starting July till the end of September OR be on our rota for just part of these
evenings according to your own availability (we
need people to serve in the tea bar/to be good listeners/to offer practical
support)
ü
Spread
the word amongst night clubbers and visitors to town centre bars to let them
know we are there for them if they need a drink of coffee or tea or a piece of
toast to help them sober up! We’ll supply “spikys” to protect their drink
bottles from being tampered with (Provided
FREE
on our opening night)
ü
Include
the work of the Night Time Cafe in your prayers – that a safe space will be
created for young people in the town centre on Saturday nights
For more information about
Bolton
’s
Night Time Cafe
leave
a message on our special phone line:
07593538721
______________________
News
All
Change in Churches Together in
Lancashire
:
At
its May 2008 Council meeting, members of Churches Together in Lancashire (CTL)
faced some important decisions for the future.
A review team appointed by the Lancashire Church Leaders and the CTL
Executive Committee presented its report.
Manchester
based Jenny Bond, Field Officer for the North
& Midlands of Churches Together in
England
, took the Council through the review proposals
and the thinking behind them. The
outcome is that the Council has tasked the Executive Committee to take forward
the following decisions:
- The
finalisation of job descriptions for a new Inter Faith Development Officer
and a new Ecumenical Development Officer
- The
advertisement of these two posts
- The
registration of the organisation of CTL as a charity.
The CTL Council Chair, the Revd Stephen Poxon, gave thanks for those who have
worked tirelessly for Christian unity in
Lancashire
and for those who still do so. At
a time of economic pressure, it is easier for denominational bodies to look to
what is needed for their own institutions than to engaging in greater ecumenical
creativity.
One of the main thrusts of the review team’s report is based on an
approach to hospitality – opening out to others rather than closing in on
oneself in some act of desperation of a declining Church.
Strong relationships enable mission
and honest dialogue, says the report.
The role of the new officers is to be seen in the context of hospitality and all
that it means with its costly self-offering and responsibilities as well as the
potential opened up to receive the gifts beyond price that others may bring
In the immediate term the Council expressed its prayers and good wishes to
Stephen Poxon as he prepares to take on his responsibilities as President of the
British Methodist Conference for the next twelve months.
The Revd Steve Pearson was inducted as the new Chair of the Council.
Parish priest of St Bernadette’s, Bispham and chair of Lancaster
Diocese’s Commission for Christian Unity, he will be one of two CTL
representatives to attend the Churches Together in England Forum in September
2009. The other representative will
be Heather Bennett, a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from
Morecambe.
The Council plans to say goodbye to its County Ecumenical Development Officer
for the past eight years on 16 July at
Ingol
Methodist
Church
,
Preston
. There
is an open invitation to this special evening gathering to mark Terry Garley’s
retirement from her ecumenical work of the past eighteen years or more.
People who have worked with Terry in the past in a variety of places are
also being invited.
| 
BOLTON
AND ROCHDALE METHODIST
DISTRICT