The past couple of weeks have been quite busy in Manchester, and the weekends have been action packed too!
The first week was Interfaith Week, and you can read my reflections on that on my last blog. During that week I also met with Jasmine from the Methodist Discipleship and Ministry Learning Network, and we mainly discussed vocation and Liverpool, among other things. I filled the rest of my time with finalising the preparations for A Light For All, our event in Lancaster about the Bible, which took place on the Saturday. The event was a wonderful opportunity for students, chaplains and local Link Churches to come together to discuss the things we love and hate about the Bible. We had a great day together, and you can find out more about the day here.
The second week was Wellbeing Week for Manchester University. As part of the week St Peter's House Chaplaincy ran a number of events including a yoga breakfast to a talk about the bees on the roof. It was great to see the chaplaincy full of life! We also held a service for the Transgender Day of Remembrance which was incredibly moving, particularly trying to light 325 candles to represent all the people murdered in the past 12 months. My main job this week was to make sure we were ready for 3Generate, the Methodist Children and Youth Assembly. On Saturday morning, Rob, our SCM Connect Project Worker, and I went to Southport. We spent time with the youth leaders who were all cold and sleep deprived, but despite that we had wonderful conversations about Link Churches, young people they were sending off to university, and how they can part of our movement. Rob ran a great session titled "When I grow up... How to be an adult" where he shared some of the secrets of being a grown up in the young adults venue. Then we returned to our homes while the young people and leaders had another night in very cold chalets.
This November has also been the Green Travel month in SCM's Green Challenges as part of our Loving the Earth campaign. Now I can't get to work without public transport, and I've used my car a couple of times due to late nights and taking other people with me to places, but my November train count is a slightly under average 60. Also in November I also travelled on two Buses, six Tram rides and two taxis - not so green travel after all. My current total train count is 840.
I've started this week in Lancaster, visiting the university Quaker group and a Christmas craft and quiz night for Lancaster SCM, before a trip to Birmingham on Tuesday to catch up with my colleagues - it is great to be part of such a wonderful team. Then I will sleep, with three whole days off!
Thanks for all your on going prayers and support!
Rach