Before lockdown Pamela used to love going to a nearby monastery. She would sit quietly, write prayers, listen to God and write down what she felt He was saying to her. However the pandemic put a stop to her visits, as well as her volunteering job in the NHS. These frustrations haven't stopped Pamela from sharing her faith with her friends.
On Saturday 23 January our annual Called Together Service took place on Zoom. This service should have taken place in October 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. Every year this service celebrates the incredible variety and contribution of lay ministers to the Diocese of Leicester. It also gives us the opportunity to pray for the new ministers and encourages us all to consider our own gifts and calling.
Christians in Leicester and Leicestershire Against Modern Slavery are a group who long to see modern day slavery eradicated from our communities. The group is formed of Christians from the locality who come from a cross section of Christian and professional backgrounds. Read more about them here.
In this week's reflection Bishop Martyn thinks about the gift of prayer
Bishop Martyn shares his first reflection in this weekly series during our current national lockdown
Bishop Guli is to become the Church of England's Lead Bishop for Housing to spearhead the Church's efforts to help ease the UK's crippling housing crisis.
Throughout lockdown our social interactions have changed dramatically. We are no longer gathering or catching up with people in the same way. So it can perhaps feel difficult to share our faith with others. Carole was feeling very unsettled by the lack of connection that the lockdown brought. So she started to think of creative ways to connect with God and with others
Courses designed to enable enquirers to look into the Christian faith have been a significant part of church life for over three decades now. The best known of these is the hugely popular Alpha Course, with Christianity Explored also being widely used. Typically, the groups either run in someone's home, a church hall, or in some cases a church will hire out a restaurant or similar venue for the duration of the course. But how would such courses fare in Lockdown?
Now that we are entering the second working week of 2021 you might be starting to thinking about Lent courses. We may not be able to gather in our normal way, but all of the courses suggested would work virtually.
In Oadby, the people of St Paul's Church have sharing their stories of everyday faith, prayer, action and witness. Their thoughts have been collated into a series of videos called Faith During Lockdown, looking at the five notions of Prayer, Scripture, Justice, Environment and Hope.
