Faith in Action | Page 21 | Student Christian Movement

Why use gender-inclusive language?

13 Jul 2016

When I was doing a placement at St Mark's Church in Mansfield, many people said that they wanted to start up a new pastoral care group. The vicar, Keith Hebden, and I had a chat about the need for more work on inclusion in the church. He posited the idea of combining the work on inclusion with...

Truth, democracy and the EU Referendum

16 Jun 2016

There’s been a lot of talk about democracy recently, with regard to the upcoming EU referendum. The Leave side have used it as a big argument against the European Union, saying that the EU is unaccountable and undemocratic. The Remain side have largely ignored the issue, preferring to focus on...

Helping refugees is crucial to our faith

12 May 2016

By Adam Spiers, Exeter MethAngSoc member

It often takes a shocking photograph or film to draw the world’s attention to a crisis, whether it be the BBC’s coverage of the Ethiopian famine in the 80s, or Turkish journalist Nilüfer Demir’s photograph of the lifeless body of three-...

Universal Basic Income: the Kingdom idea whose time has come

15 Apr 2016

The first time I came across the ‘diffusion of innovations’ was when I was working in a church. It’s a business theory created by a man called Everett Rogers, and it’s quite commonly used to explain why it can take a long time to change anything. The basic idea is that change begins...

Defending the Stranger

21 Mar 2016

The Bible, being a history of God’s people, is in many ways a book about those who are displaced, lost or cast out. This is clear from the beginning. Whether it be being cast out of the Garden of Eden, exiled in Egypt or lost in the desert, surrounded by foreigners, the people of God have had...

Costing Everything

29 Feb 2016

A while ago, my colleague Ellis asked me to write a blog about ‘costly discipleship’, which is a phrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer used. In Bonhoeffer’s view, there could be no Christian faith ‘without discipleship’ and this meant a ‘costly’ following of Christ. When Bonhoeffer said that Christ calls...

Am I my Neighbour’s Keeper? Reflections on the Death of a Dalit Student in India

12 Feb 2016

Rohit Vemula, a young Dalit PhD scholar in Science & Technology from Hyderabad Central University (HCU) was expelled along with four of his friends after a leader from the student wing of the ruling party made a complaint. The five students experienced social exclusion from university...

Reflection on Birmingham Methsoc’s Food Exchange

6 Jan 2016

by Andrew Topping

As the Methodist Society at the University of Birmingham looks back on its first term of the 2015/2016 academic year, we can happily say that we have made progress on our plans for a food exchange scheme made at the end of last year (...

Bombing, Terrorism and Solidarity

16 Dec 2015

On the 13th November, 130 people were murdered in Paris by terrorists linking themselves to the organisation Daesh (IS). As a direct response to those attacks, the UK government recently voted to extend airstrikes into Syria. Is the UK government’s response going to lessen the threat of...

Why are we campaigning for refugees?

24 Nov 2015

From 2015 to 2017, SCM is joining with Student Action for Refugees (STAR) to focus our campaign work on supporting and advocating for refugee rights. Specifically, we are partnering with STAR on their 'Equal Access' campaign, which aims to secure equal access to higher education for refugees and...