Dear friends
It’s been so exciting to see all the updates on social media from Easter services last month where churches have been full to overflowing and baptisms have been numerous. God is building His kingdom here in this nation and your stories of unity and collaboration are so powerful in the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
This month we have great stories of collaborative work between churches among the poor in York, through our newest partner Trussell and across the sea in mainland Europe. We invite you to our Learning Community Webinar on 13th May on intercultural church leadership and we share one more invitation to attend the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast with your local MP on 24th June.
We’re also meeting Sian Wade on our monthly Meet the Team section and you can check out our latest Podcast Episode on Social Prescribing with Jim Burt.
Blessings
Gather Movement |
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No One Left Behind - Working Towards a Poverty Free York
For 25 years churches and Christian leaders in York have been coming together to pray for the city every week. This incredible consistency and faithfulness has created a relational movement with strong relationships and trust in the city. So much so that the unity group, One Voice York, has launched a project this year with a God sized vision…
Hear more about the York story at our June Learning Community – Book here |
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We welcome Trussell as a new strategic partner!
Tad Billam, from Trussell’s Church Engagement team, introduces Trussell, their new tagline, and how taking part in their campaign for UK justice would enhance your unity movement. “We’re really excited to partner with Gather Movement as we invite churches and individuals to join our community of food banks across the UK in ending hunger. We changed our name and tagline recently, to Trussell: Ending hunger together. In a small way this shows that while we support hundreds of food banks spanning the entire UK, we know that to bring about real transformation, we have to do it together.”
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Don’t miss the upcoming May Learning Community, where we’ll hear from Osoba Otaigbe and Tani Omideyi about Intercultural Church Leadership.
Please register in advance.
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Join us for our Gather Movement Learning Community.
Here’s the learning community programme for H1 2025.
Please register in advance
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13 MAY 2025 • CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
(Intercultural Church Leadership)
Osoba Otaigbe - Bible Society
Tani Omideyi - Liverpool Lighthouse |
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10 JUN 2025 • SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
(Towards a Poverty Free City)
Alison Dawson - One Voice Social Action York
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In April we had a thought-provoking Learning Community on prayer strategy with Dave King…
If you missed it, you can catch up here.
You can also catch-up on any Learning Communities that you missed by visiting our Learning Community Playlist on YouTube.
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National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast
The 2025 National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast will take place on Tuesday 24 June from 7:30am to 9:00am in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament. Invite your local MP to attend with you to pray for our parliament, government and politics, to build relationships between church leaders and parliamentarians and to reflect upon the relevance of the Christian faith to our public life.
Due to high demand, we regret that at this stage, you can only buy a ticket if your MP confirms that they can attend. If you are awaiting a response, please follow the link below to be added to the waiting list and we will follow up with the MP. If your MP cannot attend, please join the waiting list. (click here for a sample invitation letter) |
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This month we’re getting to know our Trustee and Unity Leader
What's your name and where do you live?
My name is Sian Wade and I live in the city of Lincoln.
If you were a chocolate bar, which one would you be?
I think I'd be a picnic. Yeah. So I like all the different ingredients in a picnic and I love variety. I love things to be lots of different things altogether rather than just one single thing.
Why are you passionate about unity?
I've always been passionate about unity, but more recently God has given me a few visions of the church as the Bride of Christ being ashamed of who she is and not having a voice in the city, like God has called her to have. So I think there's a passion in me to see the Bride of Christ rise up in all of her beauty. One particular vision God gave me was as the bride walks down the aisle, she draws all eyes to the groom. So, when the church works together, this is what she can do - she can draw all eyes to Jesus.
What is one thing that excites you about your region?
I think every city or town has probably got a prophetic word over it but Lincoln has such a rich history of being quite a forerunner city. That's one word that God gave me in 2005 when I came here was “a city on a hill cannot be hidden”, that Lincoln was gonna be that light.
Then I came to know that God had been speaking to many people about that! So there's a breaking new ground that Lincoln can do that can be an encouragement to the rest of the nation. We've started to see the fulfilment of that as well, which is just really beautiful and incredible.
What's your favourite part about working with Gather Movement?
I think for me, it's the big network of networks. Connecting with all the different towns and cities, being an encouragement to them and them encouraging us has just been incredible. Having a passion to see partnership on a local level, but then lifting your head out of where you are and looking around the nation and seeing what God is doing in different places, it's so inspiring and so encouraging! From the first time I heard Roger speak about unity I thought, “wow, I found my people.”
If you’re from Lincoln and you’d like to find out more about Gather Movement or get involved in the Unity Group, please get in touch with Sian at sian@transformlincoln.com
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Gather Movement Podcast Episode 3 out now!
This episode looks at how we can partner with the National Academy of Social Prescribing as networks of local churches across the country with special guest Jim Burt, NASP. |
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A Weekend in Berlin - What is God doing in European Cities?
Recently Roger Sutton and Mark Cowling were invited to visit Germany and meet with some of the Unity Movement leaders from European cities. As they met and gave help and inputs to the city movement teams, they were also able to reflect on some of the common things we’re seeing across Europe and some of the unique qualities which are shaping the city movements in each country. |
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Join the Warm Welcome Space Survey
ChurchWorks is working with Historic England to research the role of heritage on the wellbeing of individuals and communities accessing Warm Welcome Spaces located in historic church buildings. We want to evidence the significance of heritage buildings so that we can practically equip churches like yours across the country to communicate the value of heritage spaces to funders, local authorities, and other key players in your local community.
If you host a Warm Welcome Space, whether in a historic or a modern building, we would love you to join us through participating in our survey.
To get all the relevant information on being part of our survey, click here or contact alisha.cole@goodfaith.org.uk.
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Our Vision is to see a unified Church working together across every city and town, to see social, cultural and spiritual transformation across the UK. We are grateful to God for how far the Movement has come but we still have a long way to go.
Could you, or your unity group, help us to deliver this vision by becoming a Gather Movement Supporter?
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