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Last updated 8th July 2025

Being Witnesses

Strands

Sharing the Gospel with Confidence

“Utterly amazed…we hear them declaring the wonders of God in their own languages.”

(Acts 2 v11).

Caedmon

In the 7th century, there was an incredible flowering of mission in the North. St Hilda is well known – she was abbess of a mixed monastery in Whitby that sent out bishops, evangelists all across Britain. Caedmon is far less well known. He was a cattle herder, who looked after the animals in the monastery. He was shy & tongue tied: he found it very difficult to make himself understood. But one night he had dream that he can sing a heavenly song about the creation of the world. When he woke up he can remember the song – in fact he can still sing it. He told his boss and his boss told Hilda who invites Caedmon to sing at the feast. This was the start of an incredible ministry – Caedmon would sing the gospel in the local Anglo-Saxon language in words that the ordinary people could understand.

There are modern day Caedmon’s everywhere. Often in hiding, tongue-tied, unable to get their words out, but it seems the Spirit of God releases them to speak the wonders of God in their own language. It is beautiful to behold.

Inspiration and resources to help us share our faith with confidence include:

  • Pray: Join us for the Year of Prayer for Growth and Renewal: resources for schools, children and young people can be found here and for parishes here
  • Lighting the Beacons: Bishop Jill's book is a great resource for individuals and parishes.  More information can be found here.
  • Call out Caedmons to speak their language: Caedmon's story can be found here as well as other people’s stories of faith here and here.. 
  • Pray for your family and friends; it is one of the most powerful things we can do.  For ideas on how to do this, click here.
  • Join or start a Christian Enquiry course; it is an excellent way to learn more about our faith and help others explore what it means to know Jesus.  For more information on courses, click on the following links.  Alpha; Start; Christianity Explored and Pilgrim.  Go!Sign have Christianity Explored videos with British Sign Language and English subtitles.
  • Talk about Jesus with young people using this Board of Education resource here.
  • Use sport as a means of sharing your faith.  The diocese is working with the Church of England sports’ team.  The Church of England has a Sports and Wellbeing Hub which you can access here.

Plant 200 New Local Congregations and 10 Strategic Church Plants

Around the diocese, New Local Congregations are taking root. 

  • Beacon Course: if you are interested in exploring starting a New Local Congregation, why not join us on the Beacon Course. 

  • Leading Your Church into Growth have written resources to support churches and  Christians as they seek to be witnesses; click here.
  • All ages and stages of life matter.  Some of our congregations are reaching out using: Messy Church  and Lyrics and Lunch.

Meet Human Need with Actions as Well as Words

Churches are responding to differing needs in many ways.  Here are some useful resources on a range of topics:

Caring for Creation

  • The Energy Footprint Tool (EFT)  enables parishes to calculate the carbon footprint of their church and associated buildings based on the energy used to heat and light them. Please help us calculate the baseline carbon emissions from our churches as part of our roadmap towards the 2030 Carbon Net Zero target agreed by General Synod in July 2022.  Last year 69% of our parishes entered their 2023 data into the EFT.  It would be great to improve on that return rate this year by parishes submitting their EFT 2024 data via the Parish Returns portal when it opens in February 2025 (https://parish/returns.churchofengland.org) before the deadline of 31 July.  [Please contact Dave.Champness@blackburn.anglican.org – Carbon Net Zero Project Manager] if you need help with completing the return or your parish has a story to share about your carbon net zero journey]. 
  • The Church of England Environmental team run a whole host of webinars.  For the whole programme of net zero carbon webinar dates and topics, plus videos of past topics, go to their website.  
  • Eco Church is a scheme run by A Rocha UK equipping churches to care for God's creation through their worship, buildings, land, community engagement and individual lifestyles.  You can find out more about Eco Church and their webinars here. 
  • Changing the Climate: find out how three Lancashire schools are leading the way here

Contact details

If you would like more information on Being Witnesses, please email: beingwitnesses@blackburn.anglican.org

 

 

 

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