Christmass Truce 1914 - commemorated Christmass 2014 'Silent Night'

‘Silent Night Carol’ events are happening across the country.  

Even before the official launch, there’s been a huge response, so there is an expectancy that thousands of people will be at events all over the country this December, in football stadiums, schools, cathedrals and churches. There are even talks of flash mobs in shopping centres.  Most of all it is important, particularly at this very troubled time, for people to discover the peace and hope found in knowing Jesus personally – supernatural peace that anyone who knows Jesus can experience even when you are surrounded by fighting.  Songwriters Nick Herbert and Ben Cantalon wrote a new verse and chorus of Silent Night for the centenary of the 1914 Christmas Truce, a short moment of sanity amidst the madness of war. 

  

Visit www.hopetogether.org.uk/christmas to find everything you need to know about Silent Night Carols: how to order the free programmes published in partnership with Tearfund, how to arrange a Silent Night Carols event, plus stories, talks and sketches.

Ideas to help your church and community mark the centenary of World War 1. Click here.

A 16-page booklet to give away at Remembrance events. Click here.

Silent Night!

11pm 4th August 1914

'The lights are going out all over Europe'  Check out the Vigil Resources from Westminster Abbey  http://www.westminster-abbey.org/worship/first-world-war-vigil-liturgy Silent Night Carols - this Christmas Sports stadia and other venues are preparing to hold Silent Night Carol Services in December 2014. Click here for a step by step guide to holding Silent Night Carols in a church or stadium near you. To download a special video click here The Christmas truce in 1914 This year marks the centenary of the First World War truce in the trenches. Troops started singing the carol Silent Night in German and in English on Christmas Eve 1914. The fighting stopped and enemies ventured into No Man’s Land to talk and exchange gifts. Some even played football. British soldier, Albert Moren, who was in the front-line trenches near the village of La Chapelle d'Armentieres recalled hearing Silent Night sung during the truce: ‘It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere ... there was a lot of commotion in the German trenches and then there were those lights - I don't know what they were. And then they sang "Stille Nacht" - "Silent Night". I shall never forget it. It was one of the highlights of my life.’ The Evening Mail, Newcastle, 31st December 1914 printed this letter: ‘On Christmas Day one of the Germans came out of the trenches and held his hands up. Our fellows immediately got out of theirs, and we met in the middle, and for the rest of the day we fraternised, exchanging food, cigarettes and souvenirs. The Germans gave us some of their sausages, and we gave them some of our stuff. The Scotsmen started the bagpipes and we had a rare old jollification, which included football in which the Germans took part. The Germans expressed themselves as being tired of the war and wished it was over. They greatly admired our equipment and wanted to exchange jack knives and other articles. Next day we got an order that all communication and friendly intercourse with the enemy must cease but we did not fire at all that day, and the Germans did not fire at us.’ New for Christmas 2014 The carol Silent Night was first performed in 1818. This year a new version, specially adapted for Hope14’s Greater Love initiative, will be sung in sports stadia, churches and wherever people sing Christmas carols. Click here for a How-to guide prepared by Bolton Wanderers’ Chaplain and Bradford Bulls Chaplain who have both staged stadium carol events in previous years. Click here for Greater Love resources to help you prepare for Silent Night Carols - and to give away to guests. Other resources being prepared by HOPE for release in July 2014 include: ·         A free Silent Night Carol Service programme with the words of the carols and an introduction to the theme, sponsored by a Christian charity ·         Piano, vocal and choral scores for the new version of the carol Silent Night ·         Scripts and ideas for short talks suitable for sports stadium events ·         Ideas for schools Silent Night Carols in a sports stadium near you HOPE is working with Sports Chaplaincy UK to equip local clubs, community groups and churches to stage the events. Pilot events have been held in several stadia - indoors and out in the stands. In 2011 Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Aldershot Town and Shrewsbury Town football clubs held carol events at their stadiums with the help of sports chaplains, local school choirs and Salvation Army bands. In 2012 the idea spread to 15 clubs, and in 2013 more than 50 sports stadiums around the country hosted a carol event for fans and other members of the community. AFC Bournemouth’s Chaplain, Rev Andy Rimmer, Vicar of the Lantern Church in Merley near Bournemouth, has held several carol services with fans and players at the Cherries’ ground. As the Cherries’ Chaplain, Andy says: ‘I enjoy getting to know the lads and occasionally training with them. We have pre-match prayer which a few of them attend. Sport is a tremendous gift from God and it’s where people are. The carol service is a chance to celebrate Jesus’ birth in a completely unique environment. We want this event to have a real community feel as well as being attended by supporters of the clubs.’ The tried-and-tested formula for the carol services includes local choirs, bands and the club’s players or manager reading some of the familiar Bible passages about the nativity story.

Is there Hope in Sussex?

I know there is Hope in Eastbourne, Wivelsfield, Old Heathfield and Holland Road Baptist Hove.  Is there anywhere else and any other places where the Christian Faith Communities are engaging with Hope 2014?

HOPE’s Greater Love resources are now available to help churches mark the centenary of World War 1 at the heart of villages, towns and cities. HOPE's Greater Love booklet is 16 pages of ideas for churches and communities commemorating the centenary of World War 1. It is free to churches planning local events from HOPE. Click here for details.

 Sharing Jesus

A commuter who normally reads the Bible on his Kindle on his way to work decided to switch to his hardback Bible to see if it would spark conversations about faith. Not only did someone ask him why he was reading the Bible but also, as he was getting off the bus, the driver called to him and thanked him for reading the Bible saying it had inspired him to get back to reading his. This is just one result of the Sharing Jesus course, based on a new 100-page, illustrated bookazine called Sharing Jesus - a practical guide to putting the Christian faith into words. Already 3,000 Christians in the London area have taken part in a Sharing Jesus training course. Read a review of the book by Ian Bunce in the Baptist Times. Click here to order copies.

Time to pray
‘I bumped into one of my ex-colleagues and in our conversation he explained that life was difficult for him. I asked if he still went to church… he didn’t. I asked if he tried praying to God. He said he didn’t know how to pray any more. I replied, “I have the very booklet for you, called trypraying.” A few weeks later he said he had found the booklet very helpful and that he had recommitted his life to Christ and that his life was getting back on track.’

This is just one of many stories coming out of the trypraying project. More than 60 areas have ordered copies of the trypraying booklet to ‘use it and lose it’ during Lent and Easter as part of Hope14. Find out more and order copies here.

If you register your church for the April 2014 campaign before April, you can get booklets for 50p which is half price!  http://www.thereishope.co.uk/join-in/

You’ll then be sent an email with a ‘secret code’ to order your booklets at 50% off.

Visit our website: www.trypraying.co.uk

Call us on: 0131 202 6449

Who? - The Story of Jesus

Introduce people to Jesus in a new way and back up Christian action with words.

HOPE’s partner Bible Society has published Who? – The Story of Jesus to help churches put faith into words as well as action as part of HOPE 2014’s year of mission together. Paul Langham, who wrote Who? is pictured with Roy Crowne.

‘We are thrilled to work in partnership with Bible Society to produce this book as a resource for the whole church to use to introduce people to Jesus, whose love has transformed our lives,’ says Roy Crowne, Executive Director of HOPE. ‘The person behind this book has impacted thousands of lives over thousands of years and is still having that same impact today. I pray that many people of all ages will be drawn into the story, enjoy the read but more than that, encounter the person who introduces himself through its pages.’

The life and death of Jesus were written from different viewpoints Matthew, Mark and Luke and yet, they set out their material in a similar way. In Who? – The Story of Jesus their words are blended together into a single faithful account, so the story of Jesus is brought to life through the eyes of his closest companions. Friends, sceptics and enemies all asked, ‘Who is he?’ Give someone the gift of Who? – The Story of Jesus and help them find out for themselves.

   
Click here to order your copies from Bible Society and:

• Use to give a reason for the hope you have (1 Peter 3:15)

• Give copies away to schools and individuals in your community

• Use at Alpha, Christianity Explored and other courses introducing people to Jesus

• Support new comers to the Christian faith

Growing Hope

Help spread the HOPE vision

A number of HOPE practitioners gathered in London recently to pray, plan and pass on inspiration and ideas about making HOPE happen in local areas. Many of the 500 HOPE practitioners around the country are volunteers: Pastor Morola Hayden of the RCCG Harvest Fellowship in Rugby is the new volunteer HOPE practitioner for her town. A few areas have appointed a salaried staff-worker: Manchester is the latest city to allocate funds to support a HOPE practitioner following an offering taken at a Manchester church leaders’ event. Practitioners help to connect churches in mission, spreading the HOPE vision in their area. We need more! The dream is 5,000 areas taking part in Hope14. It’s not too late to sign up here to be a volunteer HOPE practitioner in your area. 

Young people taking a lead in mission

The Big Weekender from 3rd-5th May 2014 is a Bank Holiday weekend to focus on mission. Hundreds of youth groups up and down the country are making creative mission plans. Sign up at hope-revolution.com/bigweekender and post Big Weekender videos at hoperev2014.com

Telling the story and sharing the faith!

This excellent resource  'Sharing Jesus' offers many ideas in how we can witness to our faith in both words and actions but more particularly in words. That is how we can move on from our actions to speaking a word of witness. Recognizing that to win some we have to be winsome!

Click to order 

   

 Doing more, together, in word and action

Students, young people and churches are working together as part of Hope14. In Norfolk, 6,000 young people at the Newday festival will support churches in their Hope14 mission plans. Churches in the New Forest are to get the help of 170 Moorlands College students as they put faith into action during Hope14, and Cliff College students will be supporting mission in Cumbria. We are stronger together than apart! 

Rural Mission Swap Shop

How do rural churches build community and share Jesus? Ludlow Deanery held a mission Swap Shop to share ideas that worked in their area from ‘Faith in the Pub’ and an ‘Off the Street’ youth club to Godly Play and a village hall drop-in coffee morning. Read more here. 

There are more ideas and 'Stories of Rural Hope' on the Arthur Rank Centre web site - www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk

Kindness and generosity in Lent

This Lent, whether you're a family, church, small group, workplace, school or youth group, 40acts Together provides you with resources to guide and challenge you to live generously, beginning 5^th March 2014. Sign up here and you'll receive the daily 40acts challenges when Lent begins, as well as a unique link to download 40acts Together group resources. Also, the #Do1NiceThing Lent Challenge at www.do1nicething.org.uk has loads of creative ideas to equip people with a different #Do1NiceThing activity every day to make our communities nicer places to be.  

World War One

There are a number of excellent resources that are available to help the Church engage with their communities as together we remember the outbreak of World War One. There will be Services to commemorate the announcement of going to war on the 4th August with the suggestion of extinguishing a candle signifying the phrase 'the lights are going out all over Europe.'  At the very least each Church should offer to clean and tidy up their War Memorial. Also the Royal British Legion is encouraging poppy growing with seed distributions.   Much will be made of the carol 'Silent Night' which was one of the carols sung during the famous Christmass 1914 football match. In particular after running some pilots in 2013 there are resources to help organize Carol Singing in the Stadium (Football Stadiums)

 Flooded?

The Arthur Rank Centre is circulating information to support those affected by flooding. Click here to find out how churches in rural areas can help flood victims.