Jesus Shaped People

Join us for MAGNIFICAT: a JSP Celebration on Sunday October 22nd from 3.30 pm to 6.30 pm at St Christopher’s Church, Holme Wood BD4 9EJ.

Magnificat will give opportunity to explore Mary’s Song in a range of ways, and enable us to grasp its remarkable prophetic message. We’ll begin with lots of creative activities and bring all this together in a time of rich and spiritually rewarding worship.  We’ll also be looking at what Magnificat has to say to the church today.

Dawn Moore (front right) began work in July as our new JSP Leeds Diocesan Children’s worker. Dawn has a fulltime post that includes two days per week working to support churches throughout the diocese that adopt Jesus Shaped People. The other three days she will be focused on supporting children/youth work in the Leeds Episcopal Area. Dawn joins us from the Diocese of Sheffield, and has previously had a range of parish based experience.  

Jesus Shaped People is growing in Chester Diocese, and their team have recently produced this effective video.  It's free to use in your church if you should wish to do so.

The recent Launch of the new JSP Charitable Trust included the introduction of two new songs written specially for JSP by James Dey. 

The first of these, ‘Here I Am Lord’ is inspired by Francis of Assisi’s simple prayer ‘Who are you, Lord, and who am I’ that at the time so captivated Brother Leo, an early follower of Francis.  The hushed repetitive chant is reminiscent of Taize.

It began with the conviction that it was time to move on from Nazareth. I’d always known that this would come at some point—indeed Mum had frequently reinforced it. She often recalled the stories of Bethlehem and Egypt, and her special poem that we called ‘Mum’s Message’ had frequently been a source of spiritual inspiration. We’d also kept up to date with stories of cousin John’s life in the desert, and news had reached us that his ministry in the Jordan valley was growing fast—indeed there were folk from Galilee, and even a few from Nazareth, who had ‘taken the plunge’!

From Blackpool to Birmingham, supporters of Jesus Shaped People(JSP) came to Bradford Cathedral at the weekend to celebrate its expansion across eight dioceses and to witness the launch of the next stage, a new charitable trust to develop it further. 

JSP began in the parish of Tong and Holme Wood in Bradford in 2005 and it has now been adopted by some 70 churches from Birmingham to Blackpool and primarily helps communities in deprived areas. Large social housing estates are a special priority for JSP, but it has also proved to be effective with churches in more prosperous areas.

JSP Celebration, Saturday February 18th at 3pm in Bradford Cathedral to mark the formation of the new JSP Charitable Trust.

The Joy of Christmas lies in the wonder of God choosing to step into our world, in simplicity and vulnerability – so that we can step into the world of his alternative kingdom. God chooses to ‘be re-shaped’ as a tiny human child, and in doing so offers us a route for our own ‘re-shaping’ – inspiring us into becoming a ‘Jesus Shaped People’.

Jesus Shaped People (JSP) is moving on. Having begun life in the Parish of Tong and Holme Wood in Bradford in 2005, in the past four years it has been adopted by other churches, and generously supported by the diocese of Bradford/Leeds and the Church Commissioners. Now a new Charitable Trust has been established that will oversee future development.

Until recently my knowledge of St Francis was limited to rudimentary memories of stories describing his relationship with the natural world.  My picture of him was of a holy man for whom the ‘birds and the bees’ had a special relationship.

All this was to be transformed three years ago when I led a first pilgrimage tour of Assisi. This was to be extended substantially in April 2016 by a further visit to Assisi, plus a few days at La Verna – the extraordinary Franciscan mountain retreat established in Francis’ later years.