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Prayer
Prayer is the heartbeat of our shared life: we know that it is God’s job to grow God’s kingdom! We meet on Monday and Thursday mornings at 9:30am to pray for half an hour in the school’s community room.
Once a month we have a prayer and worship gathering in a home. This is a chance to go deeper with God and give space for the Spirit to speak to us through songs, God’s Word, and prayer. We meet on the last Friday of the month, 8 – 9pm.
Midweek Groups
At Hope Hamilton we really value the opportunity to meet during the week to study the bible, to discuss our faith and to spend time together. These meetings help us to become more rooted in God’s word and to build strong and supportive relationships with one another.
Café
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Currently we are meeting online on Monday evenings from 7.30-8.30pm. We are following the Bible Course, learning about the grand narrative of the Bible through video teaching and discussion. If you are interested in joining, please contact the vicar Ed Down. If you would be interested in a small group which meets in person, again please contact Ed Down.
Families
Children and families are an important part of our ministry. The following passage reminds us why: Mark’s Gospel, 9:35-37 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’ He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.’ [Version, International. NIV Bible (p. 762). Hodder & Stoughton. Kindle Edition.]
On Sundays
We are very blessed to have children who are part of our worshipping community. We run a children’s group during Sunday worship. We always try to provide activities which provide a fun, interesting way of learning about Christianity.
We know that the children don’t come from the same schools or areas so the children’s group is a good way of building a community spirit and for people from different backgrounds to learn from each other as relationships grow. The group meets every week except the first Sunday when we have All Age Worship together. We play games, tell bible stories, sing songs and do craft activities each week. When we go back in to the adult service the children teach the adults about what they have learned.
The children’s volunteers all try to foster a loving, caring culture, where each child feels safe, valued and understood.
Families Gatherings
A recent initiative is to invite people to gather monthly in someone’s home. This usually happens on the second Friday of the month after school from 4-6pm. Different families come together to share time over a meal. A time for everyone to relax, enjoy the food and enjoy learning and sharing a little about the love of Jesus in a very relaxed way. We are finding that both the children and their parents are enjoying this time together. It provides an excellent opportunity to get to know each other better and to deepen our relationships and our faith.
It provides a gentle way to for families to explore different aspects of sharing their faith together.
Wander and Wonder
Since September 2021 we have started to spend time together outside, ‘wandering and wondering together’. We have been in the park, by an old oak tree or on the footpaths. Next month we are planning time in the community garden at the library. So far we haven’t ventured far but if people wish we can go further.
We are trying to find a time when people might value a short time together, usually starting with a short walk and then time to wonder at the beauty of nature. We believe it is important to spend time with nature and learn from ‘God’s Big Book’, our beautiful world. So far we have used short passages from the Hebrew Bible and secular poetry to help us to wonder. We hope that this group might appeal to a broad group of people locally.
So, if you enjoy the outdoors, or you experience something of the Divine in nature, or you’d like to think about our relationship to creation and how to live in right relationship with each other and the world it would be great if you came to one of our gatherings so that we can begin some conversations and learn from each other. Everyone is welcome. We would love to meet people of other faiths or no faith or other Christians.
Alpha
About once a year we run an Alpha course. Alpha is an opportunity to discover more about the Christian faith, as well as share your thoughts and questions with a group of people just like you. No question is too big or too small and there are no wrong answers here.
We last ran an online Alpha in January 2021 and the group that formed is still meeting together. We hope to run a new course towards the end of 2022 or the start or 2023. Contact Ed if you want to know more.
Service
One of our four values is about serving and we have spent some time trying to work out what this looks like. We have come up with this diagram which expresses the key areas we want to serve:
Some of these things are a work in progress, whereas others have been part of our life for a long time.
Every couple of months we organise a community litter pick on Sunday morning at 11:30am with the local Ismaili centre and the Hamilton Residents’ Association. We pick litter around the estate for about an hour and then have refreshments afterwards.
The next dates for our litter picks are: Sunday 3rd April, Sunday 29th May, Sunday 31st July.
Part of our service to those around us is expressed in our giving (see below). Each year, we make a donation of 10% of our received giving to a local, national, and international charity. In 2021 those charities were One Roof Leicester, A Rocha, Open Doors.
Giving
Part of Christian discipleship is being generous with our time, treasure, and talents. Our church is dependent on financial contributions from our members to be able to offer our ministry in Hamilton. Most of our members give to the work of the church by a regular payment through the Parish Giving Scheme. You are welcome to talk to the vicar about giving to the church.
If you wish to make a donation online and give to the work of Hope Hamilton Church, please select the link below:
If you wish to set up a regular payment to Hope Hamilton Church, please go to the Parish Giving Scheme here: