Rural Chaplaincy

A new page has been added to our Resources section. Check it out here

Quadrennial conference updates

A reminder that the registration/payment deadline is March 27.  The transportation gas surcharge of $75 is also due at this time. Your registration will be cancelled if full payment or other arrangements have not been made by that date.

All persons will need to show proof of a covid-10 vaccination to enter the U.S.  More information as to what type of proof is needed can be found here.

Please send your flight arrangements as soon as you have them.  They can be entered on the form found here.  If you need to stay additional days because of the flight schedule, you are responsible for paying for those nights even if you have received a scholarship.  A payment portal will be up shortly.

Make sure you have a valid US visa or a valid ESTA (mostly European Countries).  You will not be allowed to enter the US without one.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

We are looking forward to seeing everyone and are praying that your trips will go smoothly.

Mind Your Own Small Business – Africa Edition

A new resource is available that is especially related to the small community context in rural Africa. Produced by Transformational Enterprise Network, Mind Your Own Small Business Africa Edition workbook is primarily a document for trainers but written so it can be used by participants. “Feel free to use any or all of it without further permission”, writes Jerry Marshall its key author.

You can find the resource on our Papers and Reports page or on the Transformational Enterprise Network website

SAVE THE DATE!

The next IRCA quadrennial meeting will be from April 13- 19 in Dubuque, Iowa, United States of America.  Located in America’s heartland on the banks of the Mississippi River, Dubuque has been voted one of America’s best small cities and has won several environmental awards. 

The theme this year is Flourishing:  Land, People and Community. The Bible tells us that God is a God of abundance, yet many of us live in settings/contexts that emphasize scarcity. Can we get beyond the numbers to share the stories of God’s abundance among us?

Highlights of the program include:

              A three day joint conference with the Wartburg Lutheran Seminary’s Center for Theology and Land Rural Ministry Conference. (April 15 -18, 2023.)

              Field trips and excursions options include (subject to confirmation):  a city tour of Dubuque, a narrated Mississippi River Cruise, a visit to New Melleray Abbey (sustainable forestry practices),  and the Four Mounds Conference Center.

              Meeting people from around the world who share a common interest in rural ministry.

              Spending the weekend (April 14 & 15) visiting and worshipping with a regional rural family.

We will be staying at the Best Western Dubuque.  Registration costs are USD1,000 if paid by November 30, 2022 and includes all housing, meals, local transportation and excursions.  The registration site should be open sometime in early September.

I hope you will be able to come.

Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen

Open Access Laudato Si’ Integral Theology Collection

Check out the new website of the Laudato Si’ Research Institute.

To quote the website:

In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis emphasised the importance of a united, global response to the current ecological crisis. Yet dialogue and learning on integral ecology is often hindered by limited access to the academic publications on the subject, which are not affordable for many individuals and institutions in lower-income countries.

Check it out by clicking on this link

World Environment Day

The Christian Conference of Asia’s General Secretary Dr Mathews George Chunakara has issued a statement on behalf of CCA for World Environment Day 5 June 2022. It can be accessed at this link

IRCA2022 Sharing Stories and Prayer Around the World

Video from our Chairperson

Rev Dr Mark Jackel-Juleen introduces the 2022 ZOOM event and invites us all to the planned face t0 face conference in Dubuque, Iowa USA in 2023.

IRCA 2022 Round the World

Networking for prayer and conversation

with video, worship and presentations

7-8 March 2022 

Because we are unable to meet face to face this year for our regular Quadrennial Conference, the IRCA Leadership decided to set up a 24 hour opportunity to connect and pray together as rural churches around the world. We will be online on ZOOM for the whole 24 hours which means that anywhere in the world you can join at a time that suits you.

The Lutheran Seminary’s Center for Theology and Land in Dubuque, Iowa, USA is hosting its regular annual rural ministry conference and our plan is to link up to their opening sessions. (This Seminary is where IRCA 2022 was originally going to be held, now postponed to 13-20 April 2023.) The Rev Dr Mark Yackel-Juleen, Director for Small Town and Rural Ministry at the Center and Chairperson of IRCA will open the ZOOM session at 1500GMT. Following this will be Bible Study led by Dr Craig Nessan and the Keynote Speaker Rev Melanie Mullen. Heather Major from IRCA’s Leadership Group will lead us in a time of prayer and connecting and then we will head off around the world, an hour at a time, in different countries moving west around the globe.

People from anywhere in the world can join us on ZOOM during the 24 hours: you can come and go as you wish. Click here for the detailed programme and REGISTER to be ready to receive the ZOOM link prior to the start.

Connecting Communities in Prayer

Networking across cultures and borders

Ruminations

The latest edition of the Australian rural ministry magazine Ruminations is now available. Click here to access from this website. Or go to source where you can also access earlier editions.

The theme for this Spring/Summer 2021 edition is “RENEWING”. In his introduction editor Mark Faulkner says, “Each of our contributors have, completely independently of each other, reminded us that renewing is a particular occurrence that takes place outside of the ordinary. It is in Sabbath. grief, loss, seeking, honesty, separation, and discernment that the seeds of renewing can be planted. Renewing, as our authors tell us, comes with an element of surprise and is a gift to us, even a divine blessing and does not come without work, struggle, effort and yet is a human responsibility.”

Take a read and be inspired. However different your context may be, there will be something that connects for sure. For that is the nature of the gospel.

Gleanings of a Prairie Pastor

Joyce Sasse has penned this collection of rural community memories and writings which is available to download as an e-book. It contains the fruits of her many years as a rural minister with the United Church of Canada, with themes that will relate to many, in terms of the rural context or of being a pastor to people, as they are and where they are.

Click here to access the ebook.