As many churches across London have spent the bank holiday celebrating with their community by joining in a Big Lunch, or welcoming their thousands of visitors for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, More than Gold have released two new resources to help planning for similar events during the Games. [Read more...]
Diamond Jubilee
Information about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and ideas for how your church might celebrate it.
Jubilee worship resources
23 May 2012 By
The Worship Workshop website now has a fantastic range of Diamond Jubilee resources which are designed with Collective Worship in mind, but could be used in Sunday groups or all-age worship. Go to www.worshipworkshop.org.uk/resources and click the Diamond Jubilee box for five pages of prayers, worship and downloads (including several explorations of the National Anthem, a dance, and Collects written by pupils of St Matthew’s C of E Primary School Westminster).
National photography competition to celebrate faith and communities
25 April 2012 By
A national photography competition which showcases the positive impact of faith in the community launched today. Faith Through a Lens – www.faiththroughalens.co.uk – aims to inspire amateur photographers from across the UK to capture the essence of faith and the community.
The competition, now in its third year, is the creation of national church insurer Congregational & General. This year it includes an additional category to promote ‘A Year of Service’, a new initiative that is highlighting, encouraging and linking up faith-led volunteering throughout this Diamond Jubilee year. This initiative is supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Faith Through a Lens’ judging panel is led by internationally renowned photo-journalist Don McCullin, who will be joined by Secretary of State for Communities, the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP.
The Revd Dr David Cornick, General Secretary of Churches Together in England, Paresh Solanki from Inter Faith Network and John Glass, General Superintendant, Elim Churches UK complete the judging panel. The entries will be judged based on a variety of criteria including visual impact, composition and emotional connection.
The three categories now open for entries are:
- Moments of Faith
- Community Spirit Against the Odds
- A Year of Service.
An exclusive awards ceremony will be held in central London as part of the national celebration for A Year of Service during Inter Faith Week. The winning photographer in each of the three categories will receive a prize pack valued at £1400, which includes a Nikon V1 camera. Winning photographers can also nominate a faith, charity or community group to receive £1000 of audio-visual or photography equipment of their choice.
Members of the public have the opportunity to influence the final selections by voting for their favourite image through the dedicated microsite – www.faiththroughalens.co.uk – when the public voting stage of the competition opens on 1September. Entries will also be available to view on Congregational’s social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Margaret Slater, Marketing Manager at Congregational, said:
“Faith in the UK is vibrant, diverse and plays a very important role in many people’s lives. In launching the 2012 competition we want to encourage people to capture everyday demonstrations of faith that enrich so many people’s lives.
“Following last year’s success, we are delighted to be working with the ‘A Year of Service’ initiative in this significant Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year and we hope to encourage continued interaction with various faith communities across the UK whilst supporting photography at grassroots level.”
For further details of the competition, including prizes and entry requirements and to upload your images visit www.faiththroughalens.co.uk.
Parishes’ Jubilee celebrations highlighted on new website
25 April 2012 By
A new website has launched, offering Church of England churches the opportunity to highlight the wide range of community and parish events being organised for the Queen’s Jubilee.
www.jubileenearyou.com will showcase the diversity of events planned for the Diamond Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June.
Building on the success of a similar website the Church of England ran at Christmas, any one of its 16,000 churches can add details of celebration events to the existing website www.achurchnearyou.org. Suitably tagged entries are automatically migrated to the jubilee site.
Parishes throughout England will either be running their own events or supporting other community events including the Big Lunch celebrations.
The extended Jubilee holiday culminates with the National Service of Thanksgiving to Celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee at St Paul’s Cathedral on the morning of Tuesday 5th June. The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Members of The Royal Family, will attend service will be conducted by the Dean of St Paul’s, The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach. A special prayer for the Diamond Jubilee will be included in the service.
Diamond Jubilee Grace
13 March 2012 By
A specially composed grace thanking God for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen – and the food to be shared at Jubilee celebrations – has been published.
Seen by Her Majesty, it will be prayed by millions of people throughout the Commonwealth on Sunday 3 June, before they share a Big Jubilee Lunch in their communities. The Big Jubilee Lunch is part of the celebrations for The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, as announced by Buckingham Palace, and encourages people to come together to share lunch with neighbours, friends and family.
The grace reads:
Grace for Diamond Jubilee Lunches
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, we give you thanks for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth; for her steadfast faith and for her royal service to this nation and all the peoples of the Commonwealth.
Bless the food before us and the people beside us; may the sharing of this meal strengthen our communities, and nurture the bonds between us of friendship, hope and trust.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ who reigns as servant of all.
Amen
The text of the grace is available on the Church of England website.
Presentation versions of the grace may be downloaded and printed by all wishing to use it from the HOPE website.
Ideas for celebrating the Diamond Jubilee
29 February 2012 By
Watch the St Paul’s service together
The Jubilee Thanksgiving Service on Tuesday 5 June at St Paul’s Cathedral will be screened on national television.
Your church could host community celebrations, showing the service on a big screen and perhaps giving people a chance to join in by singing the hymns and following the words and responses on specially printed sheets.
You could ring your church bells with St Paul’s at the end of the service.
The Big Lunch
The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project that is championed ecumenically by HOPE. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. This year it falls on Sunday 3 June, during the Jubilee weekend.
Welcome the visitors
The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant: a flotilla of 1,000 boats, from kayaks to antique tall ships, will follow the Queen and Royal family on the Royal Barge for seven miles down the Thames from Putney to Tower Bridge. As crowds line the streets and the river bank to watch the events of the weekend, churches can play their part in making them feel welcome.
During the boat race each year, All Saints Fulham welcome the crowds, with refreshments, a bouncy castle, access to their toilets, and family-friendly activities. They’re looking to repeat this hospitality during the Jubilee river pageant, and during events of the Olympics. If your church is on the route for any of these occasions, consider how you could help crowds to feel welcomed, or if you’re close enough to travel and watch, get in touch with friends on the route to see if a volunteer group from your church can support their outreach.
Jubilee prayer and liturgical resources
29 February 2012 By
The following Prayer, written at The Queen’s direction by the Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral for Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, will be used in the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday, 5 June. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have commended it for use throughout the Church of England.
God of time and eternity,
whose Son reigns as servant, not master;
we give you thanks and praise
that you have blessed this Nation, the Realms and Territories
with Elizabeth
our beloved and glorious Queen.
In this year of Jubilee,
grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace
as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God
and in devoted service to her lands and peoples,
and those of the Commonwealth,
now and all the days of her life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Big Lunch
29 February 2012 By
The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project that is championed ecumenically by HOPE. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. This year it falls on Sunday 3 June, during the Jubilee weekend.
The Revd Richard Frank, from All Souls St Margarets, has been running these events for three years:
All Souls Church – a local parish church near Twickenham – first got involved with the Big Lunch launch event in 2009, since when we’ve helped host the street party alongside our local residents’ association (NSMRA) each year. The roads that meet at the corner of our church building are closed and we fill the space with tables and chairs, set up a ‘bandstand’ on the corner – for live, locally ‘sourced’ music – and provide a bouncy castle, free face-painting and hot drinks in the church garden. It helps, of course, that the Big Lunch date is always a Sunday, so the congregation spilling out of the morning service join with other local residents, young and old, each bringing food to eat and share. Our experience has been that it’s a fantastic way to engage with our neighbours, bless the community and open up the doors of church to those who’d never usually make it, even into church the garden. In 2012, the Big Lunch is one of the official events helping celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. We’d enthusiastically recommend it for any local church in a residential area.
For more information, visit The Big Lunch website.
Tell us about your church’s royal connections
29 February 2012 By
To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, ChurchCare – the Church of England’s online resource caring for its 16,000 church buildings – is collecting stories about the regal links between churches, cathedrals and the monarchy.
ChurchCare is looking for tales of visits, burials, baptisms, commemorations, weddings, funerals, battlefields, blessings and more. They are especially interested in accounts involving Queen Elizabeth II, but your stories can come from any period in history. Whatever your royal connection, ChurchCare wants to hear about it!
Anne Sloman, Chair of the Church Buildings Council, said:
“These individual histories will be woven together to create a ‘Royal Trail’ around England’s churches and cathedrals, celebrating the unique links between churches and the Crown in a remarkable Jubilee year.”
The Royal Trail will be publicised and promoted via www.ChurchCare.co.uk.
The deadline for submissions is 1 May 2012. Please send any information or queries to ben.greener (Email: ben.greener [at] churchofengland.org) or visit www.ChurchCare.co.uk for more information
Diamond Jubilee celebrations begin
7 February 2012 By
Monday 6 February marked the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Accession to the Throne, when she became Monarch on the death of George VI. As we look forward to the celebrations this summer, churches can plan to spend time with their community, and offer hospitality to visitors. A rhythm of community-focussed events throughout the summer, including the Jubilee, Olympics and Paralympics, could give local residents times to meet neighbours, get involved in community groups, become more active, and begin to build a relationship with their local church.
Eating together
The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project that is championed ecumenically by HOPE. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. This year it falls on Sun 3 June, during the Jubilee weekend. Rev Richard Frank, from All Souls St Margarets, has been running these events for three years:
All Souls Church – a local parish church near Twickenham – first got involved with the Big Lunch launch event in 2009, since when we’ve helped host the street party alongside our local residents’ association (NSMRA) each year. The roads that meet at the corner of our church building are closed and we fill the space with tables and chairs, set up a ‘bandstand’ on the corner – for live, locally ‘sourced’ music – and provide a bouncy castle, free face-painting and hot drinks in the church garden. It helps, of course, that the Big Lunch date is always a Sunday, so the congregation spilling out of the morning service join with other local residents, young and old, each bringing food to eat and share. Our experience has been that it’s a fantastic way to engage with our neighbours, bless the community and open up the doors of church to those who’d never usually make it, even into church the garden. In 2012, the Big Lunch is one of the official events helping celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. We’d enthusiastically recommend it for any local church in a residential area.
Watching events and celebrations together
As with the Royal Wedding last year, gathering in a church to watch a televised service may prove a popular option. If you have the capacity to screen events, invite everyone in to watch the thanksgiving service, which is at 10.30am on Tues 5 June. Friendships started at the Big Lunch can be built on, and those who might otherwise be on their own can be welcomed at a friendly, relaxed event. Alternatively, you may with to show the concert broadcast from Buckingham Palace on Mon 4 June.
Welcome the visitors
The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant: a flotilla of 1,000 boats, from kayaks to antique tall ships, will follow the Queen and Royal family on the Royal Barge for 7 miles down the Thames from Putney to Tower Bridge. As crowds line the streets and the river bank to watch the events of the weekend, churches can play their part in making them feel welcome.
During the boat race each year, All Saints Fulham welcome the crowds, with refreshments, a bouncy castle, access to their toilets, and family-friendly activities. They’re looking to repeat this hospitality during the Jubilee river pageant, and during events of the Olympics. If your church is on the route for any of these occasions, consider how you could help crowds to feel welcomed, or if you’re close enough to travel and watch, get in touch with friends on the route to see if a volunteer group from your church can support their outreach.
Diamond Jubilee Accession Service | Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace
6 February 2012 By
A reflection by the Bishop of London, Dean of HM Chapels Royal at a gathering of the College of Chaplains to the Queen. Lessons – I Peter II:11-17. Matthew XXII: 16-22.
In the Queen’s own message released for today, Her Majesty says:
“As I mark sixty years as your Queen, I dedicate myself anew to your service. I hope that we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness.”
It is a remarkable statement at a time of cynicism and short termism; of disposable cups and junk mail. What a contrast to the picture of royalty painted by one of the media luminaries of our day who hailed last year’s royal wedding in these words: “It will be the biggest event in television history because there are no bigger celebrities in the world than the royals.” Thank God that the Royal Family, following the example of the Queen and Prince Philip, does not in fact exemplify the hedonistic lifestyle associated with the culture of celebrities who are [as the American historian Daniel Boorstin put it] persons principally “well known for their well-known-ness”.
I was especially struck by the words “convening strength” in the Queen’s message. Daily experience often seems to suggest that we are on the way to what Jeremy Bentham described as a “society of strangers”. Perhaps that is why we invoke the concept of the “community” so frequently because we are aware of its fragility and the truth that in some parts of the country, fragmentation has gone so far that community is hard to find. But over the past sixty years the Monarchy has proved over and over again its “convening strength” and a capacity to hall-mark and foster the development of a community of communities which can give colour and encouragement to our individual lives.
Monarchy has ancient roots and biblical reverberations from the time that Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon King and all the people cried “God save the King”. What we celebrate in this Chapel Royal today is ancient and stands for deep continuities and rituals without which people become disoriented and have difficulty in changing purposefully. [Read more...]
Diamond Jubilee beacons and Ecclesiastical Insurance
26 September 2011 By
Ecclesiastical has recently reconfirmed that insurance cover is in place for churches celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by lighting beacons on 4 June next year.
Thousands of beacons will be lit around the world on the 4 June 2012 to commemorate Her Majesty The Queen’s 60 year reign over the UK and as head of the Commonwealth. Church Tower beacons will be lit on the battlements of HM Tower of London, St James’s Palace, Lambeth Palace, London, Bishopsthorp Palace, York and at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh as well as Killyleagh Castle in Northern Ireland. Churches across the country have been invited to join in the celebrations and light beacons to commemorate the special event.
