The United Reformed Church's Big Day Out for the North West and Mersey synods kicked off SCM's month of festivals on Saturday 8th July. In sunny Southport, Rach, our North West Regional Development worker and our newest volunteer, PJ, from St. Bride's Church in Liverpool had the chance to take the SCM stall to talk to church leaders about becoming SCM Link Churches. The day itself consisted of worship, workshops, puppet ministry and a talk on 'the church in action' by Steve Chalke. "It is great to see how much support SCM has in the URC, as well as to hear stories from people involved in SCM in the past" said Rach.
Next up was Naturally Supernatural, run by Soul Survivor from the 21st - 27th July in Stafford. This year the festival had been amalagamated with Momentum, and revamped to be more family friendly. Our Groups' Worker Lizzie, who was at the festival with volunteer Jade Constable and SCM Administrator Ruth Naylor, said " We kicked off the countdown to Freshers this year by praying for students at Naturally Supernatural, inviting passers by to write down their prayers on luggage tags, and tweeting them using #prayforstudents. We also gave out goody bags full of SCM resources and other treats to soon-to-be students. Being at festivals is a great opportunity to meet people face-to-face and spread the word about SCM!"
Running alonside Naturally Supernatural was the National Justice and Peace Network's annual conference in Swanwick, on the theme, ‘A Sabbath for the Earth and the Poor’. The conference looked at the big issues of the environment and poverty with reference to Pope Francis’ encyclical, 'Laudato Si: Caring for our Common Home'. SCM's Faith in Action worker Ruth Wilde and SCM member Ellie visited the conference to run the SCM stall there. Ellie said, "Though I am a Quaker and not a Catholic, the atmosphere was very welcoming and I came away with a renewed commitment to working with other Christian traditions. The themes of social justice, care for the environment and living simply resonated clearly with my Quaker faith, and I felt as if I was among like-minded people". You can read Ellie's blog on the conference here.
Continuing the summer of festivals, SCM will be at Greenbelt from the 25th-28th August this month. You can find us sharing advice for freshers about faith and university in our ‘Going to Uni’ session, getting creative with prayer and campaigning at our interactive stall in the G-Source village, and making new friends at our ‘Student Meet-up’ in the Jesus Arms on Saturday. Make sure to check out our latest blog on the Greenbelt site all about how we live out the Great Commission at university.