Hope 2008 A Ecumenical Agenda

Hope 2008 A Ecumenical Agenda.

North Yorkshire church to fill city with angels

[1] Holy Trinity Church Ripon will be staging a city-wide Angel Festival over the first bank holiday weekend in May, inviting the whole community to get involved. The event is in support of Hope08, a national initiative celebrating churches’ engagement with, and commitment to, their local communities.

[2] To celebrate the amazing role that angels play, and as part of Hope ’08, Holy Trinity Church Ripon invited the people, families, shops, schools and businesses to get involved in our exciting and unique festival:

Ripon Churches Together have got together to plan a series of events throughout 2008 to support this campaign. As part of this, Holy Trinity Ripon had the idea of an angel festival – like Kettlewell’s scarecrow festival, but a bit more heavenly!

Churches together are ecumenical movement on Ripon Churches Together website they have a link called churches together links menu when you click on it it will confirm their ecumenical stance,

[3] On hope08 website it states “‘If Hope 08 manages to stimulate a year of prayer and missionary activity it will enable the Devon Christian Communities to become clear unambiguous signs of our hope in Christ for the whole county. We must support it in prayer and deed’ RT Rev Christopher Budd, Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth

[4] “I wholeheartedly recommend this grassroots initiative as a way of empowering local Churches to be bold in living and proclaiming the Gospel in our society. I am particularly delighted that from its beginning HOPE 2008 has been an ecumenical initiative which can thus witness to the power of the Gospel to unite people in a world of many divisions.” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor – Archbishop of Westminster, [5] they deliberately missed out that he is the head of the Roman Catholic Church for England and Wales.

More names mentioned on the Hope08 website who are ecumenical.

[6] Morris Munns (Wiltshire)

Morris is the County Ecumenical Officer for Wiltshire where he represents Wiltshire Churches Together. He is interested to hear from any churches or groups of churches within the County who are keen to bring Hope to their communities in 2008.

[7] Val Potter (Dorset)

Val is the County Ecumenical Officer for Dorset, and in this role she is keen to help encourage participation, publicise local Hope events and share ideas across the county.
[8] Ged Cliffe (Shropshire – excl Telford)

Ged is the County Ecumenical Officer for Shropshire who is keen to help coordinate the work of Hope throughout the County of Shropshire.

Their website states Churches Together in Shropshire unites in mission the following Christian Churches in the county:

* The Baptist Church
* The Church of England
* The Greek Orthodox Church
* The Methodist Church
* The Presbyterian Church of Wales
* The Religious Society of Friends
* The Roman Catholic Church
* The Salvation Army
* The United Reformed Church

[9] Simon Taylor (Churches Together in Devon)

Helping to facilitate Hope across Devon

Simon is the County Ecumenical Officer for Churches Together in Devon, he is very enthusiastic about the Kingdom focused dimensions of Hope which he believes have the potential to enhance the work of church partnerships throughout Devon.

[10] Teresa Brown

Helping to facilitate Hope in Northamptonshire & Peterborough

Teresa is the Ecumenical Coordinator for Churches Together in Northamptonshire and Peterborough (known as Shire and Soke). She is keen to promote Hope in this area.

[11] Telford (David Lavender)

David is very happy to be a Champion for Hope in Telford where he plays a key role in the area as the Ecumenical Dean working on behalf of the Telford Christian Council.

[12] Peterborough HOPE 2008

To contact the planning team for Peterborough HOPE 2008 get in touch with the secretary: Teresa Brown or Youth Leaders: Matt Wild and Simon Campling (CROPS)

Teresa is the Ecumenical Coordinator for Churches Together in Northamptonshire and Peterborough (known as Shire and Soke). She is keen to promote Hope in this area

[13] NIGEL DESBOROUGH (South-East London)

Nigel is pastor of Forest Hill Community Church and the Manager of the “Here for Good” community centre in sydenham and Chair of Lewisham Ecumenical Borough Deans. He is part of the pastoral team with XLP, Chair of Transform Network, supports Street Pastors, member of New Wine Leaders Network and a regular attender at Soul survivor.

Nigel has wide experience in church ministry, evangelism, church planting, teaching, and community work. Is in regular liaison with the mayor of Lewisham, and other local agencies.

According to Nigel “Hope sounds great. really enjoyed Soul in the City (continued this work in 2005 and 2006, as well the major outreach in 2004), inspired by Andy Hawthorne at New Wine Leaders Conference re Hope. think its great, want to get involved with our church, and very happy to promote it wider”.

Soul in the City was started by [13] CASE the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation, remember that Mike Pilavachi is the co-founder of Soul Survivor, click on number 13 and you can download the official latter from CASE the letter shows by their own admission that Soul Survivor is Ecumenical they were involving catholic youth to do evangelism, the Catholic church is looking to bring people into the Church of Rome itself.

“Put your talents and your youthful enthusiasm at the service of the proclamation of the Good News. Be the enthusiastic friends of Jesus who present the Lord to all those who wish to see him, especially those who are farthest away from him…Feel responsible for the evangelisation of your friends and all your contemporaries”.

Pope John Paul II, Message of World Youth Day 2004.

Dear ,

We are writing to you as a leader of Catholic youth in the UK to invite you to get your young people involved with the Soul in the City mission, taking place in London this summer. The mission is an ecumenical effort coordinated by the Christian charity Soul Survivor and is aiming to proclaim the Christian message to London both through social outreach and through evangelistic evening celebrations.

Soul in the City is taking place over two weeks: Week A takes place from the 26th to 30th July, and Week B from the 2nd to the 6th of August. Thousands of young people from all different church backgrounds will be coming to participate in the mission and it is a great opportunity to expose our young Catholics to a living Christian youth culture and to involve them in evangelistic outreach, primarily of a social nature. All the information you need about the mission and what you would need to do to bring a group of young people along is enclosed.

Response by CASE

This event is being jointly promoted by the Catholic Youth Service of England and Wales and the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE).

Your questions answered:

What is Soul in the City?

Youth and church groups will bring along their young people for one week of the mission (Week A: 26th- 30th July, Week B: 2nd-6th August) and will stay in ‘tent cities’ around the city, where there will be praise and worship and teaching every morning.

The basic structure of a day on the mission is as follows:

MORNING: Praise and worship and teaching begins at about 10am. There will be an opportunity to attend Mass beforehand (details to be confirmed).

The afternoon outreaches are being coordinated by local churches in London, including some Catholic churches,

The idea is that some of the contacts made through this social outreach will come on to the evening meetings to hear the Christian message more explicitly. The climax to the mission will be a massive 18,000 strong worship service in Trafalgar Square on Saturday August 7th.

A similar mission was held in 2000 in Manchester and was a great success, with lasting results both in local communities and for individuals who came to know God in a new way.

For more information on the mission, its vision and its organisation, see www.soulinthecity.co.uk (this now goes to Hope ’08 own website.)

CASE is also supported and endorsed By Hope ’08 [14] If the hopeinfo visitors are from a known Roman Catholic background or request to be put in touch with someone from a Roman Catholic church, then CEA will contact CASE

They tell Catholics to goto Catholicism rather then lead them out of this apostate religion.

[15] The Rt Rev Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury.

“As President of Churches Together in Shropshire I would like to commend an initiative to you, called HOPE 08. This builds on the holistic mission work done by regional initiatives such as “Soul in the City” (this clearly is ecumenical) and “Merseyfest”. The vision is that churches work together in our villages, towns and cities to do more of God’s mission in word and deed throughout 2008.

HOPE 08 is a light-touch ecumenical initiative which aims to resource local groups of churches as they engage in God’s mission together. A number of resources, chiefly an inexpensive workbook, will be available to encourage this grass roots initiative. Further details can be found at www.hope08.com. Literature and a DVD are also available with further information. We hope that this will be picked up and implemented across the county next year.

Refs

[1] http://www.indcatholicnews.com/angels325.html

[2] http://www.angelfestival.org.uk/

[3] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=87163

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_Murphy-O’Connor

[6] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=75283

[7] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=85380

[8] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=75839

[9] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=59178

[10] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=55152

[11] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=105796

[12] http://www.hope08.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=63105