FAITH AND FITNESS DAY CONFERENCE
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JANUARY 10, 2019
The Guild of Health & St. Raphael is an ecumenical, inclusive and prayerful organization in London, UK working locally and nationally in the Christian healing ministry. The Revd. Dr. Gillian Straine, Director, is organizing this exciting and unique day conference exploring the important role that sport and exercise plays in the relationship between our faith and our bodies. Through a number of keynote speakers and through workshops conference participants will explore the ways in which they can improve connections between mind, body and spirit and how that can contribute to health and healing. Speakers include The Revd. Dr Rob Ellis, marathon runner, Jenny Baker and The Revd. Graham Buckle.
Brad’s commentary:
In the years I’ve been doing Faith & Fitness Magazine I continue to see a limited number of faith-centered fitness initiatives in the UK. In the summer of 2018 I was fortunate to visit and connect with a few. I believe there are more that I’ve not yet identified and even more Christians in the UK that want to do fitness as ministry.
In my correspondence with the Revd. Dr. Gillian Straine specifically regarding this conference she has expressed to me, “I know that this is such an important area of thought, I just need to get people aware of our work.” Getting the word out and helping people network is both the challenge and the opportunity. I believe with this conference early in 2019 there is strong potential to facilitate learning, strengthen networking and collaboration, evaluate needs, and even identify some next steps.
Some Christian fitness professionals and entrepreneurs here in the United States have already expressed their eagerness to bring resources and support fitness ministry growth in the UK in the second half of 2019. I encourage readers to support this effort so that faith-centered fitness can be an emerging initiative and achieve greater results in Europe.
