Upcoming events at the House of the Open Door Community
The Community hosts many events throughout the year, using some of the facilities in our Retreat Centre; we list those coming up in a calendar below.
Our Tithe Barn is sometimes reserved for guest groups but is at other times is an ideal event space for meetings or conferences hosted by the community such as our Friday night Fellowship meetings, or those visiting for discipleship. Smaller meetings such as craft retreats take place in our Craft Studio.
If you are visiting for one of the events it may be possible for us to cater for you in our Dining Room; during your visit you are welcome to spend any spare time in our Retreat Centre Gardens.
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On Friday May 10 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Jason Charewicz. Jason will speak on the theme ‘Pleasure and Joy.’
Pleasure and Joy are familiar concepts to all of us. But familiarity can lead us to take things for granted, and our – perfectly natural – tendency sometimes to use the two as synonyms can obscure the differences and, at first glance strangely, to experience less of both. Drawing on inspiration primarily from CS Lewis and Aristotle, this talk will explore what pleasure and joy are, how the digital age in which we live can hinder or enhance them and provide a few practical suggestions for how we might better pursue them.
Jason Charewicz is the Caritas and Environment Officer for Clifton Diocese, supporting parishes and pastoral areas in mission-oriented formation as well as the Diocesan Jubilee Coordinator. He has led pilgrimages to Flame and to World Youth Day as well. Faith and Formation | Clifton Diocese
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
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On Friday July 5 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Alice Hall from Sion Community.
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome. We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
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Alice met Sion Community through a school mission in 1992 and has been involved with Sion Community ever since. She is single and in discernment for a more committed consecrated life. She lives at the Ark, Sion’s community house in Coventry.
Following a Discipleship Training School in her late teens, she initially joined the Sion youth team and later moved into initiating, leading or developing various areas of ministry within the Community. She has a degree in Drama and Theology and a Masters in Theology and Christian Ministry.
Alice is passionate about the love of God and about people. She finds life serving Him through preaching, teaching, praying with and walking alongside others as well as through worship.
Matt Blair from Gas Street Church in Birmingham spoke at HOD last year. He returns to be our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker on 19 July 2024.
Matt hails originally from San Francisco, California and is the Operations Coordinator (GS South) and Associate Student Pastor for Gas Street. His assignment since joining Gas Street has been to build up the new Gas Street South location. Since January 2023, he has been working in the Student ministry and now looks after that alongside his Operations role.
Matt has over a decade of experience as a Worship Director and Worship Pastor and over two decades of experience working as a professional actor on stage and screen working alongside household names like Judi Dench and Matt Damon.
His passion is to see people radically transformed by the Holy Spirit and live lives wholly seeking the Lord and His Kingdom. He resides in Birmingham with his wife of 17 years and their two amazing children.
Jamie Price from Elim Limitless will be our speaker on 24th July 2024, as part of our Gateway Summer Youth Conference 2024. Jamie spoke last year and we had to have him back!
Jamie is the Director of Ministries for Limitless (Elim’s National Youth and Children’s ministry) and on the Limitless Pioneers team, helping churches with no youth ministries, start new youth ministries. He lives in Birmingham with his wife Debs and sons Jude and Ezekiel. In his spare time, he loves to run and read.
‘When we have been clothed…’
(2 Corinthians 5.3)
On Friday September 27 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Andy Swinford who will speak on the theme “When we have been clothed“
Andy will lead us in a deep dive into the fascinating subject of clothing in scripture. It is an important and inspiring topic running right through the Bible, from God’s clothing of Adam and Eve at the beginning, to the wedding garment of the Bride at the end of time. Sometimes we all need a change of clothes and this might be the night!
We look forward to Andy sharing with us. Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
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Andy formerly taught English Literature and is the author of 14 essays in ‘The Christian Tradition in English Literature’. He is about to publish ‘The Practice of Joy: insights from the stories of C S Lewis’. He also delivers multimedia presentations and on-line classes about the authors C S Lewis and Tolkien.
Andy Swinford
Walking in the countryside and beekeeping are among his chief pleasures. He is a long-standing friend of The House of the Open Door, and has spoken before at our Friday Night Fellowship Meetings.
On Friday October 11 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Tim Alford from Limitless.
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome. We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
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Tim lives in Malvern, England, with his wife Jen, and two kids, Tobijah and Aria. He is the National Director of Limitless, a Youth Ministry Specialist Lecturer at Regents Theological College, and author of Leadership 101: Your go-to guide to leading youth and children’s ministries into a brighter future.
Tim is passionate about equipping leaders and communicating the gospel, having spoken at conferences, churches, schools and events all over the world. He is an enthusiastic runner, a frustrated supporter of Arsenal, and has on more than one occasion been to the cinema in Star Wars fancy dress.
