Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:15,17

Shop

When we buy coffee, only 7-10% of what we pay goes to the actual growers. Shop Fairtrade for a more equal distribution.

Many big companies – particularly Amazon and Starbucks – are notorious for dodging taxes and not paying their fair share. Go for independent cafés and retailers instead, when you can – including our own Coffee Shop here at St Michael’s

Buying second-hand clothes from eBay and charity shops is cheaper, more fun, and far better for people and the environment than buying new. It reduces the market for exploitative sweatshops, and stops ‘fast fashion’ from using up precious resources and going to waste.

Give

Pitching in financially at St. Michael’s Church enables us all to better serve our communities and our global partners.

10% of everything given to St. Michael’s is funnelled straight to our mission partners who are living and sharing the good news on the ground in Bristol, the UK, and around the world.

We can donate to poverty relief charities too. If every member of St. Michael’s church gives the cost of one Tesco Meal Deal per week towards mosquito nets, we as a church could protect a quarter of a million people from Malaria every year.

Serve

Some of our local mission partners need volunteers to make a direct difference in people’s lives – that could be you.

The befriending program connects lonely refugees and asylum seekers with local people who can give a couple of hours a week to spend some quality time with them. More info at bridgesforcommunities.com/programmes/b-friend

Bristol Christian charity inHope need people to help feed the homeless and vulnerable in Bristol with jobs like serving food, washing dishes, and preparing food parcels. Visit inhope.uk/get-involved/volunteer to sign up or find out more.

Share

Why not Tell your friends and family about the habits you’ve been building and actions you’ve been taking?

Vicky has now joined our Core Leadership Team, and her ordination as a Deacon will follow later in the year.

You can watch Vicky’s licensing on the the youtube clip below. For more info from the Diocese and Bishop Viv, read the post here

You can watch an edited version of the service below, and underneath that is the full version of the service.

We asked Vicky to tell us a bit about this new stage, as we welcome her to the role.

Hello!

I’ve been training for ordination for the last two years, and I start work at St Michael’s on 6 July. I’ve been part of the church here for a long time and so starting on Monday feels a bit like coming home. But I have a totally different role so it is also a new start – and I have all the nerves that starting a new job brings. I am so grateful to you, my church family, for all the love and support (and food and coffee and book-lending and so on) over these two years – thank you.

One of the things we are called to do as we get ordained, is to ‘tell the story of God’s love.’ That is what I am most looking forward to. I don’t yet know exactly what that will look like (but I know it is not an essay that needs footnotes!) but it will be with people inside and outside the church, through Alpha, with families and individuals of all different ages and anyone else who stands still long enough.

Please pray for us as a family as we adjust to this new phase. Rob continues to run his film making business, Oliver (20) will be back for his third year at university in the autumn, and George (18) will – all being well – start university then too. It’s all change in the Wicks household, so please pray that it does not overwhelm those of us staying in Bristol. Please pray too that I can see, and join in with, what God is doing here in Stoke Gifford, and that there will be plenty of opportunities to tell his story.