Reflections and Stories | Page 15 | Student Christian Movement

International Women's Day: Alberta Williams King

3 Mar 2015

Sunday 8th March is International Women’s Day; this is a day of celebration and recognition of the achievements of women across the world. This year, the official UN theme is ‘Make It Happen’. All too often women’s achievements are sidelined and ignored, and International Women’s Day attempts to...

Incarnational Student Work

12 Feb 2015

I love it when someone suggests a long word for something you’ve been thinking about but didn’t have a way of describing. This week’s word is ‘incarnational’, which basically means living it out, rather than telling people what to do.

I think this is an important word for a movement like...

Doubt and Uncertainty

23 Jan 2015

At the recent ‘Godly Mayhem’ conference organised by the Progressive Christianity Network and SCM, one of the student participants raised the question of whether students are too young to cope with doubt, and whether embracing doubt and uncertainty is something we can only do when we are older...

Chaplaincy and Student Work - Spot the Difference!

22 Jan 2015

I often find myself having circular conversations with church leaders about the differences between chaplaincy and student work.

Sometimes it is hard to spot the difference, but when the student work doesn’t happen it is all too obvious.

We once phoned a chaplain to ask them to...

Faith and doubt: The whole truth and nothing but the truth?

27 Oct 2014

If you made a list of Christian clichés, near the top of it would be something akin to the following: ‘Being a Christian is not easy, there are some tough times.’ In corporate speak, it’s called managing expectations. We do it all the time, and as Christians we may similarly try to change...

Searching for Truth in a sea of doubt

7 Oct 2014

Q: Have you ever experienced doubt in your faith?

There was probably a time when I was younger, when I was certain of what I thought and confident I was right. I guess I thought that was faith. Going to university changed things. University is a place that fosters this...

Wrestling with Doubt: Why uncertainty can be valuable

29 Sep 2014

It makes headlines when faith leaders acknowledge the possibility of doubt. Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby,...

Meeting God in Silence and Community

19 Mar 2014

“Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est" – where love and charity are, God is there.

These words from one of the Taizé community’s many chants sum up what Taizé stands for and...

The Value of Vision

25 Feb 2014

During the keynote address given by Revd Inderjit Bhogal OBE at Conference 2014, I was struck by a question that has consistently nagged at me: How do we fight apathy? How do we learn to care more deeply and love more fully? Many different answers probably exist for these questions, but the...

Melilla, global poverty and the student life

6 Dec 2013

I learnt about Christianity at school and became a committed Christian when I was 14 years old. My Christian faith partly influenced my decision to devote my life to campaigning for justice and helping those less fortunate than myself. It also led to my decision to study International...