As you know in Bristol, we are continuing to see how as churches we partner together to build
Bristol as a city of hope. We have had so many significant opportunities as church leaders to be involved in seeing our city transformed in huge long term ways. The doors have been open, after many years of faithful prayer and relationship building with Bristol City Council and across many other sectors. As Andy Street often mentions, this truly is a ’such a time as this’ moment for the church.
As a church leader, I recognise the huge pressure we have all been under in making ‘church happen’ from the journey of going online and sustaining that, to the ‘in person’ services that some have started and then there is Christmas!! :) This is alongside all the commitments of pastoral care and the significant journey of lament that we have been facing. I’m writing today as a church leader who gets that but want to encourage us all to make sure we don’t take our eye off our communities and city. God is doing so much and inviting us into this story.
Currently, mental and emotional health is the wave that seems to be ever-increasing and we want to commend the work of Patrick Regan and
Kintsugi Hope (
www.kintsugihope.com) to you as a way of helping us engage with our churches and communities with Adult and Young People Wellbeing groups (
www.kintsugihope.com/groups). In recent conversations with Ann James (head of children services at BCC), she has said they want to explore with Kintsugi Hope how the Bristol church could see youth wellbeing groups happen across the city through schools and other services. We are excited about this possibility and have a meeting in the next few weeks to explore this more. Kintsugi Hope also partner nationally with Home for Good and TLG and we love that overlap that we have in Bristol. The church really needs to get stuck in and encourage Christians to serve in so many ways to bring God’s kingdom transformation in our city.
So here are some events we wanted to commend to you and others in your church
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Tuesday 1st December from 12.30pm-1.30pm - Kintsugi Hope National Church leaders Reception on zoom - Kintsugi Hope is passionate about supporting churches to support others in their emotional and mental health and tackle social isolation. This will be a unique opportunity to hear from their of chair of Trustees, Simon Barrington and to get a real feel of what God is doing across the UK. This is a private event for Church leaders & Leadership teams only, please use the code KHCL to book your space on - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kintsugi-hope-church-leaders-online-reception-tickets-123336957159
I would also like to introduce to Jean Allchorne who is Kintsugi Hope ambassador in Bristol who is really up for meeting up and chatting more about the Wellbeing groups. Please contact her on
kintsugi a_t stmichaelsbristol d_o_t org
We hope you are keeping well and safe.
Please join us in prayer and action to build Bristol as city of Hope.
Stewart and Andy
PS. STOP PRESS - It continues to amazing to see the churches response to fostering and adoption in Bristol. If you want to encourage your church to catch the vision and God’s heart for the most vulnerable children in our communities, then please check out the
Home For Good National Summit from 22-27 November online -
www.homeforgood.org.uk/events/summit2020 or Clare Walker who is based in Bristol would love to connect with you and your church to share more -
clare.walker a_t homeforgood d_o_t org d_o_t uk