The Norfolk and Norwich Christian community website Thomas takes steps to place children in families Thomas Abbott, from the Norwich-based charity Care for Children, is walking 200,000 steps to raise money for his charity. Thomas and his wife Rachel previously worked in Thailand and Vietnam developing the charity, which places children from orphanages in local families. They are now back in Norwich. For the first time in his life Thomas has agreed to participate in a fitness challenge. “My personal goal is to raise US $2,000 / £1,500 by walking, running… limping over 200,000 steps this month,” he said. So far he has done 95,000 steps and raised $635.
Norfolk church projects receive part of £5m funds Two Norfolk churches and a Christian conference centre have received part of almost £5m worth of government grants to be given out to arts and heritage groups across Norfolk. Amongst those to benefit in Norfolk from the Culture Recovery Fund are Letton Hall Trust (£44,100), The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Great Yarmouth (£47,100) and The Cathedral of St John the Baptist Trust (£95,700) Letton Hall, a Christian conference centre in Breckland that usually welcomes hundreds of people from churches and youth groups every year, was forced to close for 15 months during the pandemic and, at times, the future of the centre looked uncertain.
Spiritual Advisor wanted for Hope Into Action
Hope Into Action is seeking someone who will provide a Holy-Spirit reliant spiritual perspective ranging from an organisational level to city teams and individual staff. You would help staff on pastoral and work issues, challenges and troubles and pray into them, thus equipping them for their work, building their resilience and spiritual development. You would also feedback regularly to managers on key themes and spiritual strategies for the organisation. You would guide us in relation to churches and tenants, input to our policies and the way we do things. You would also contribute to prayer events.
Wymondham churches in rule-of-six witness walk Half a dozen Christians from two Wymondham churches held a socially-distanced Walk of Witness in Wymondham town centre on Good Friday with a large wooden cross. The group stopped in several locations to listen to Bible readings and pray. The organiser was retired vicar Mike Porter from Alive Church who was joined by colleagues from the church and Rev John Potter from the Wymondham United Reformed Church. Mike said: “Over the weeks up to Easter I was reflecting on the fact that we had not been able to have our usual ecumenical procession of the cross through Wymondham in 2020, and it saddened me to think that the same would be the case in 2021. However, the thought had occurred to me that there was no reason why up to six people should not walk through Wymondham with a cross.
Easter Day gives us hope for the future What does the future hold for us asks Dean of Norwich Cathedral, the Very Rev Jane Hedges, in her Easter reflection. There’s a story about some twins in the womb having a conversation with each other about what the future would hold. One asks the other, “So, do you think there will be life after birth?” During this past year we have all had to come to terms with living with uncertainty. We have been in and out of lockdown, people have been furloughed or put out of work altogether, others have wondered if their businesses would survive, schoolchildren haven’t known whether they would sit exams, young couples have found themselves postponing their weddings several times over, NHS staff and care-workers have constantly had the worry of not knowing if they would be overwhelmed with very sick people.