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Urgent request for foodbank supplies to see summer holidays out
Although many children may be dreading the end of the school holidays and enjoying the finale of their freedom, kids on free school meals are just looking forward to getting fed every lunchtime again.
At the beginning of the summer, the Trussel Trust, who help run thousands of foodbanks across the country, anticipated the demand to be its highest ever.
87,496 food parcels went to children in the UK during the summer holidays of 2018, which was an increase of 20% on the previous summer.
Christian MP Frank Field has called 2019 the ‘worst summer yet’ for child hunger and called on the government to set up a national scheme that feeds children in the breaks.
Christian foodbank worker Natalie Williams, who works in Hastings, told Premier: “That is what we’re seeing on the ground here. We just this week actually had to put out on Facebook for the first time some photos of our warehouses, empty shelves, with a bit of a desperate appeal for some food to come in.
“Our July was the biggest July we’ve had. We’ve been open for seven years and it’s gone up by about 25% compared to last July and we’re seeing more and more people coming in.
“To be honest with us that’s across the board, not just in the summer, but like I said, we’ve just seen this spike in July.”
She said last Friday they served 166 people in a two hour session.
Ms Williams explained how she would like…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Overcomer Expanding into 100 Additional Theaters This Weekend
One week after surpassing most prognostications, the faith-based film Overcomer is expanding.
Overcomer (PG) will open in 100 additional theaters this weekend, according to Provident Films, one of the companies behind the movie. Overcomer opened in 1,723 theaters last weekend and grossed $8.1 million to finish third behind Angel Has Fallen and Good Boys, and ahead of Hobbs & Shaw and The Lion King.
Its per-theater average ($4,728) ranked second among films in the Top 20. It also earned an A+ CinemaScore grade from moviegoers and a 98 percent audience score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Kimber Myers, a film critic for The Los Angeles Times, gave Overcomer a positive score and said the movie has “an emotionally effective conclusion that might persuade even the cynics to its cause.”
The film tells the story of a high school basketball coach who grows dejected when a town tragedy forces his best players to move elsewhere – spoiling what he thought would be a state championship-contending season. His situation gets worse when he is told to coach a sport he hates: cross country.
It was made by Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the same filmmakers behind War Room, Courageous, Fireproof and Facing the Giants.
The film’s poster asks moviegoers to consider: What do you allow to define you? The movie is based on Ephesians 1-2 and examines what it means to have an…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
Churches urged to bring their ‘social identity’ to toxic online platforms
It comes after research from The Royal Society for Public Health revealed how social media makes people feel.
The study showed content that triggers negative memories, the fear of missing out and pressures from celebrities and influencers were among the most toxic.
People ranked memes, access to learning resources, and understanding diverse cultures as among the most meaningful.
The Scroll Free September campaign is encouraging the public to take a break from their social media accounts for the month of September in a bid to build more healthy relationships with online platforms.
Rev Dr Peter Phillips is the Director of CODEC Research Centre for Digital Theology of St John’s College.
Speaking to Premier News Hour he stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy balance when it comes to life online:
“This ‘always on’ society means that we’re always under social pressure and if some of that goes wrong with people being nasty then that can have a backwash into your social life.
“Completely coming off social media could be detrimental to your social life as well because that’s where you may meet people. That’s where, if you’re house bound, you may connect with people and so we don’t want to increase people’s anxiety by them going completely cold turkey, it’s about getting a balance.”
Rev Phillips went on to say that although limiting screen time can be a…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Dinner Church Movement Sets the Table for Food, Faith and Friendships
CHICAGO (RNS) — On a near-perfect late summer evening, about a dozen people gathered on a picnic blanket in Chicago’s Palmer Square Park, spread between kids playing on playground equipment and young adults throwing a Frisbee disc on the lawn.
Accompanied by the crunch of joggers’ footsteps on the gravel path circling the narrow strip of green in the city’s trendy Logan Square neighborhood and the rumbling of a passing El train, one of the picnickers took a piece of pita bread and broke it in half.
“This is our body,” he said, passing it to the person sitting next to him. Each person repeated the gesture before digging into a spread of food from a nearby restaurant.
This gathering wasn’t just another group of friends soaking up the last days of summer outside.
It was church.
Root & Branch Church calls this service the Welcome Table. It’s part of a growing trend of dinner churches popping up across the country in churches in a number of denominations, conservative and progressive, urban and rural and everything in between.
The dinner church movement sees gathering together for a meal itself as worship, rather than just another church potluck after worship.
“It’s also really important to recognize that dinner churches are not a fundamentally new thing, this is not just like the latest cool iteration of church, and that eating together has…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
Franklin Graham announces 2020 UK tour
The preacher – and son of Billy Graham – will visit arenas in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, Bournemouth in June and London in October.
“I’m excited to be coming to the UK in 2020,” Graham told Premier in a statement. “This is the land of my forefathers and an area that my father especially loved. He preached the Gospel there many times and I am looking forward to sharing the hope of Jesus Christ across this great land.
“Jesus is the only one who can change hearts and transform lives. I have a huge burden for this nation, and I want people in the UK to hear the Good News of God’s love for all of us.”
His tour will come two years after he held a 3-day mission in Blackpool.
Around 10,000 attended that event, with many coming to faith as a result.
But the event was marred by protests to his presence.
Many raised objections to comments he’d made about homosexuality and Islam, as well as his links to Donald Trump.
A petition, calling for him to be banned from entering the UK, received thousands of signatures and a series of local bus adverts for the festival were also refused.
Speaking to Premier, Roger Chilvers, one of the organisers of the tour, defended Graham.
He said: “He feels that it’s the right time to come and reach a few more of the cities, and the people around the country and so he’s coming for one night in eight…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Killings, Kidnapping Target Christian Leaders in Mexico
MIAMI, August 30, 2019 (Morning Star News) – A Roman Catholic priest and an evangelical pastor in Mexico were killed this month, and another pastor was kidnapped, according to published reports.
The Rev. José Martín Guzmán Vega was killed on Aug. 22 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, in northeast Mexico, according to the Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM). The priest of the Cristo Rey parish in the San Adelaida area of Matamoros was stabbed several times at about 10 p.m. inside his parish building, according to CCM, citing neighbors who heard cries within. He was 55.
His death brings to 27 the number of priests killed in Mexico since 2012, according to CCM. The state attorney general’s Investigative Police officers were still looking for a motive and the assailant(s) at this writing. In recent years drug rings have targeted both Protestant and Catholic leaders for their opposition to trafficking in illegal substances.
“So far this year, various incidents against priests and other clergy have been recorded, such as the case of a priest wounded by gunfire in Cuernavaca, Morelos [state], and the death threats against various priests in various areas of Veracruz,” CCM reported.
On the other side of the country, in southwest Mexico’s Oaxaca state, pastor Alfrery Líctor Cruz Canseco was shot to death in Tlalixtac de Cabrera on Aug. 18, shortly after leading a worship service at…
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