2008: a year of hope, mobilising churches in the city of Gloucester to act, to speak and to display the hope found in Jesus Christ...

Hope ‘08: Looking back

Over 100 activities happened last year under the hope08 banner, enthusing churches to get in involved in their communities throughout Gloucester.

Nearly 40 churches / Christian initiatives from a wide variety of denominations in the city ran projects for hope 08, or at least took part in various events together.

Hope08 saw Christians involved in serving others through language courses, community action projects, marriage and other life courses, clean up projects, homework clubs, debt management workshops, music gigs, fun days and many more.

As well as this, the focus group helped organise Hot Chocolate give aways, community fun days, a week of ‘Acts of Kindness’, Carol singing and Christmas stories as well as promoting the March of Witness, Alpha courses and generally helping churches involved.

What about 2009?

Hope 2008 made a big impact in Gloucester and many involved had lots of fun serving God by serving others in a whole variety of different ways. The column on the left briefly summarises some of our activities, of which we can be greatly encouraged by. However, as we move on into 2009, hope in our city is needed more than ever.

None of us can ignore the effects of various crises throughout the world. Be it economic, environmental, social or political, the world is in desperate need of hope. A hope that is sure, that is grounded in truth, that is dependant on grace and the love of Jesus Christ.

As people are forced to become more and more focused on their own needs, this time is vital for the people of God to be a beacon of hope through our selflessness, our care, faith and our desire to help and serve others to see the true and unswerving hope of Christ be revealed.

With this backdrop, we are aiming to continue with some of the activities explored during the Hope08 initiative, under the ‘Hope for Gloucester’ banner. We want to keep on encouraging churches to ‘do more, do it together, and do it in word and deed’. We hope to organise or promote activities during 4 high points throughout the year, but also we hope that churches in general will partner together and reach out to their communities. 2008 has shown us a little glimpse of what can be achieved, and we look forward to see how the Church in Gloucester can build on this during 2009.