Movement_158_Digital

NEWS
GROUP NEWS
John-Sargeant / Greenbelt
LANCASTER SCM
YORK CHRISTIAN FOCUS
SCM AT
GREENBELT
Another dry-ish and wonderful
August bank holiday weekend at
Greenbelt festival is over, with
staff and volunteers braving the
unpredictable weather to tell festival
goers all about SCM.
At the SCM stall there were
numerous conversations with new
students who each received a goody
bag with the second edition of
SCM’s Going to Uni guide. We also
caught up with former SCM trustees
and Friends who shared their stories
of their time with the movement.
Along with our friends at Winchester
University we ran a ‘Going to
Uni’ panel discussion for young
people on Saturday evening, with
questions from participants covering
everything from how to make
friends to navigating student culture.
We also held a ‘Student Meet Up’
in the Jesus Arms each evening,
and all thoroughly enjoyed Beer and
Hymns on the Monday afternoon!
It was a pleasure to exhibit at
Greenbelt and meet and resource
so many others who are just
as passionate about justice,
community, inclusion and faith.
Thanks to the Greenbelt organisers
for a brilliant festival, to the eight
SCM students who volunteered with
us and to every one of you that
came to say hello!
During 2018 Lancaster SCM has been meeting regularly
on a twice monthly basis to share in fellowship and lots of
tea. We’ve run Bible Studies and had workshops from our
Regional Worker Rach, and we also attended a talk by Terry
Eagleton.
We’ve also been getting involved in the national movement
and attended the Gifts of Grace gathering and SCM AGM
in Glasgow - all of our regular attendees made it which we
were very proud of! We have also been exploring links with
other groups on campus through our existing contacts,
such as Green Lancaster (associated with the Students
Union), the Quakers and Liminal, an LGBTQIA+ faith group
that meets in the Chaplaincy.
The new academic year holds lots of potential for Lancaster
SCM and we are looking forward to getting stuck into some
campaigning work. A campaign focusing on recycling on
campus has been motivating us during the summer term,
and we hope to properly launch this in the new academic
year.
HELENA RIPLEY
This past academic year has been the first that York Christian
Focus has been in full operation! Rest assured, we’ve been
up to lots since we last appeared in this magazine. Some
highlights include a workshop on Bible stories and the
impacts of healing, a pilgrimage to Selby Abbey, a talk from
the Dean of York (who is now Bishop of Bristol!) and mindful
colouring film nights!
One of the important aspects of what we do is to encourage
open discussion that allows people to explore questions
related to faith. We’ve run a student-led discussion with the
topics being picked at random out of a (metaphorical) hat,
covering a range of topics from the theology of superheroes
to whether Jesus is truly without sin. It was so successful we
have another one planned for the upcoming term.
Over the next year Christian Focus has lots of plans to
help show the diversity of our different faiths, including an
‘Ask a Priest’ event where we intend to get ministers from
different churches to answer questions. We are hoping
this will highlight the diversity of Christian traditions whilst
also showing that we are all united through a set of core
beliefs. Of course, alongside all this we will be continuing the
Christian Focus tradition of drinking lots of squash and eating
far too much cake!
JACK WOODRUFF AND SAM DALY
PREVIOUS AND CURRENT PRESIDENTS
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