Category: St Michael’s Centre

Growing Faith. Together

Posted on by Laura Thomas

St Michael’s Centre is delighted to be hosting this Bristol Diocese event on Saturday 20 January

Bristol Diocese say:

At Growing Faith. Together, we aim to create an informal and welcoming environment where individuals from all parts of our diocese can come together to explore and deepen their faith. Whether you are a long-time believer, in church leadership or just starting your spiritual journey, this event is for you! If you can come with others from your parish team you will be able to get even more from learning and reflecting together.

Throughout the day, there will be engaging speakers, thought-provoking discussions, and inspiring worship sessions.

Keynote Speaker: Christopher Jamison – Former Abbot of Worth Abbey; reluctant star of the BBC2 series, The Monastery; Director of Vocations for England and Wales from 2010-2017 will speak on spiritual patterns for everyday life and lead a workshop on learning from Benedictine rhythms.

Workshops and short talks throughout the day will enable us to hear from the experience of others across the whole diocese who are seeking to help people grow in their discipleship and to help their churches flourish including:

  • Holy Habits
  • Renewing culture and building hope
  • Sabbath rest
  • New resources for encouraging growth in faith
  • Growing faith with young people
  • Developing patterns of life that fit with our temperament and personality
  • and more to be announced

You will have the opportunity to connect, think and pray with others who are longing to grow in faith and see our churches thrive, share your experiences, and learn from one another.

MORE DETAILS AND BOOKING HERE

Gift Day May 2023

Posted on by Laura Thomas

This Gift Day supports the resources and buildings for St Michael’s Church

Ready to pledge? Click here

St Michael’s has a vision to be a Christian heart at the centre of our communities. And we live to make that difference through learning and growing together, sharing Jesus together, and serving together. This gift day supports our resources and our building projects.

What have we done since last year’s gift day?

At our Gift day last year we gave away 10% of all that we raised to our Mission Partners. We invested £90,000 to complete the tiered seating in the auditorium, and reduced our loans by £238,000.

At a recent prayer meeting, someone shared a little thought, saying “God is not finished with us yet”. It’s true isn’t it that we do now have a beautiful community building, but we are still called to build a community.

What will donations achieve this year?

We have 4 main aims this year:

1: To significantly reduce our loans on the church centre.   A £150,000 loan repayment will help to reduce loans to £481,000, compared to the £2 million in 2015.

2: Honour our commitment to the church refurbishment.

3: Fit solar panels to the roof of the church centre, making us more eco-friendly, and enhance the decor and audio-visual capabilities in the auditorium.

4: Give away £75,000 to our mission partners, having already given over £400,000 out of the project.

How Can We Get Involved?

Please think and pray about what you might give this year. We invite everyone at St Michael’s, to sow generously into God’s work by giving. How can we each play our part to make it happen, together?

  • Make a one-off financial gift
  • Start regular giving to St Michael’s Church Centre Ltd
  • Increase your current giving to St Michael’s Church Centre Ltd

How Do I Give?

We’re inviting everyone to complete this simple online Response form  

Gathering our responses helps us to be able to plan next steps.

Please click on the button below:

For ways to give to the Heart of the Community Project click here.

Mindfulness & Christian Spirituality

Posted on by Laura Thomas

Day Course Saturday 4 November

Click here to book

Another popular day course on Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality with Revd Tim Stead

 We are delighted to welcome Tim back for another Saturday workshop.

These workshops are a great opportunity to stop, reflect, learn, and develop tools that help us ‘practise the present moment’ and ‘practise the presence of God’.

We need these skills more and more in our hyper-distracted,  24/7 digital age!

Whether you are seasoned in mindfulness or want to find out more – there will be something for you in this workshop, 

Intentions for the day:

– Explore how mindfulness practice can engage with and support the spiritual journey with particular reference to the Christian contemplative tradition
– Serve as a quiet day where participants go away feeling they have had space for deep reflection.
– Share ways that mindfulness could be taken forward for those who choose to.

There will be regular breaks throughout the day. Tea and coffee will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch with you.

Course leader
Tim Stead is an accredited mindfulness teacher who trained with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. He was a Church of England vicar for 23 years and now operates as a freelance mindfulness teacher, teaching eight week courses and leading retreats and quiet days. His books, Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality and See, Love, Be – mindfulness and the spiritual life are published by SPCK. He has also published a Grove Booklet: Mindfulness and prayer. www.timsteadmindfulness.org

What people have said about these workshops:

“I now I have the practical tools to spend time with God in silence on my own – these tools and practices have actually changed my prayer life!”

“It’s so good to explore the links between current learning in mindfulness practice and Christian Spirituality – I didn’t realise there were so many’. 

“These workshops have taught me to appreciate the present moment more and more and notice God working in my life in the small things and the big.’

“I could listen to Tim for ages – he’s such a good communicator”.

Spaces are limited. Book early to avoid disappointment

Click here

Thriving as a Single Christian

Posted on by Laura Thomas

Saturday 11 March 11.30am – St Michael’s Centre, Stoke Gifford

What does it look like to thrive as a single person of faith? What does the Bible say about singleness, and why is this often misunderstood in church?

Join Single Friendly Church and other Christians around Bristol as we explore these themes together.

This talk is for everyone, whether you have been single for a long or short time, and in whatever circumstance.

There will be opportunities for discussion and socialising with others.

Tickets are £5 per person and include refreshments.
Doors open at 11am for refreshments, with the event running from 11.30am -1.30pm.

How to find us