Ministry Matters

Last Advent and Christmas over 5,000 people used Church Finder to find their local church. Help these people find you this Christmas by listing your services on the diocesan website.

Find out whether your parish has its services listed yet:

Send us information about your services and other public events in whatever way is most convenient:

• Email the text, attachment or a link to the appropriate page on your parish’s website to christmas (Email: christmas [at] london.anglican.org)
• Send your pew/news sheet, parish Christmas card or magazine to London Christmas, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU.

When the information has been entered, a parish’s page will display the London Christmas image to show visitors that information about Christmas activities is available – simply click the image to go forward.

Last year, hundreds of parishes used the diocesan website to advertise their Advent, Christmas and Epiphany services. Over 5,000 people visited the website’s Church Finder during that period.

We are now ready to start receiving details of services, concerts, plays and whatever else you are hosting. We are happy to be sent the information in whatever way is most convenient for parishes:

• Email the text, attachment or a link to the appropriate page on your website to christmas (Email: christmas [at] london.anglican.org)
• Send your pew/news sheet, parish Christmas card or magazine to London Christmas, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU.

When the information has been entered, a parish’s page will display the London Christmas image to show visitors that information about Christmas activities is available – simply click the image to go forward.

(If you are planning a Christingle service you may also wish to visit www.christingle.org for materials and advice, courtesy of the Children’s Society.)

In his Christmas message to the Diocese, the Bishop of London considers the current economic crisis and offers an underlying message of hope for the future.

In his Christmas message, the Bishop refers to ways in which parishes are responding to the economic situation. Information can be found in a paper by the Community Ministry Adviser:
Community Ministry and the recession (pdf)

The website (www.londonchristmas.org.uk) is designed to help people to learn about Christmas and to make contact with their local churches this Advent and Christmas.

The website includes:

• Church Finder facility that shows parishes’ Christmas activities
• Paperless advent calendar
• Electronic Christmas cards
• Bible readings recorded by celebrities and church leaders
• Online prayer requests
• Education material and activities for children

Help needed from parishes

In order to make the Christmas project the mission success it deserves to be, we need help with two things in particular.

Firstly, please let us know what services you have planned from Advent to Epiphany. Almost 4,000 used the diocesan website to find their local churches in December last year. See here to find out if your church’s services are listed yet.

Secondly, if you are using the educational material for assemblies and workshops, either schools or with youth groups in the parish, please let Sam Donoghue (sam.donoghue (Email: sam.donoghue [at] london.anglican.org)) know.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the Bishop of London’s Mission Fund for their financial support. We also offer our thanks to London Internet Church, Premier Christian Media, the Board for Schools, St Paul’s Cathedral, Viz-A-Viz Ministries, the Archdeacon of Northolt, PaperlessChristmas and the Children’s Society for the time and material they have contributed.

Last December almost 4,000 people used Church Finder to find their local church. Help these people find you this Christmas by listing your services on the diocesan website.

Find out whether your parish has its services listed yet:

Send us information about your services and other public events in whatever way is most convenient:

• Email the text, attachment or a link to the appropriate page on your parish’s website to christmas (Email: christmas [at] london.anglican.org)
• Send your pew/news sheet, parish Christmas card or magazine to London Christmas, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU.

Last month we announced our coordinated approach to helping parishes communicate the Christmas message. We particularly wish to help people make contact with their local churches from Advent to Epiphany.

We are now ready to start receiving details of services, concerts, plays and whatever else you are hosting. We are happy to be sent the information in whatever way is most convenient for parishes:

• Email the text, attachment or a link to the appropriate page on your website to christmas (Email: christmas [at] london.anglican.org)
• Send your pew/news sheet, parish Christmas card or magazine to London Christmas, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU.

The parish’s page on the diocesan website will display the London Christmas image to show visitors that information about Christmas activities is available – simply click the image to go forward.

To see how this works, visit the page for St Botolph without Bishopsgate, who kindly agreed to test this facility for us.

(If you are planning a Christingle service you may also wish to visit www.christingle.org for materials and advice, courtesy of the Children’s Society.)

Children’s pack and the rest of the project

The educational materials for the Christmas project are all but complete and will be launching online very soon. CDs containing the animations, lessons plans, assemblies and comics have been sent around the Diocese already.

Once the education aspect is complete, resources for adult enquirers will also start to appear on the new website.

General information about the project is online at www.london.anglican.org/Christmas.

You will already have heard more about this project from Sam Donoghue, the Children’s Ministry Adviser, and had the chance for a sneak peak at some of the materials being developed for use in schools: www.london.anglican.org/Christmas.

But Christmas is not just about the children. This year, we will also help people – adult enquirers in particular – find out what is happening in the churches near to their places of work and their homes. From mid October we will begin collecting details of services, concerts and other activities – preferably from every parish in the Diocese. This information can be sent in whatever form is most convenient, be it by email, post or a link to a page on a parish’s website.