Brazil: starting a church in prison

Mission partners Andy and Kati Walsh work with local church partners in Florianópolis, sharing the hope of Jesus in challenging contexts. Andy and others have been working together to launch churches in local men’s prisons. In one prison, 20–25 believers already meet regularly, currently without any involvement from an ordained minister. Please pray for obstacles to be removed and for favour so that Andy and his team can provide further support and help more prisoners find freedom in Jesus.

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Lebanon: a country and a region in crisis

Lebanon is suffering a “humanitarian catastrophe in every sense of the word”, according to Barham Salih, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees. Over one million people – a fifth of the country’s population – has been displaced as a result of the war over the past few weeks. Pray for provision of shelter, food, drinking water, medication, mattresses and blankets. Pray for people to turn to Jesus across the Middle East and find hope in him. Ask God to turn people’s hearts to peace and for leaders to work together for resolution.

See prayer points from CMS’s partnership officer in Beirut.

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South Asia: theological students

“Praise God for the 90 theological students from all around the country who attended the Equipping Emerging Leaders as Agents of Transformation (EELAT) Conference this week,” writes F, who supports theological education in South Asia. Please pray for the theological students as they return to their regular studies, that they may be inspired and equipped to make a difference to their churches and communities as they prepare to begin pastoral and other ministries. 

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Sri Lanka: Diocese of Kurunegala

Asia-CMS invites prayer for the Diocese of Kurunegala, where the Christian population is declining. Pray for encouragement over their 15 house churches, asking that they might grow in number and depth of faith. Pray for a men’s ministry to be established and for more people within the community to be able to access theological education.

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Tanzania: new mission partners

New mission partners Dave and Tricia Rollett are preparing to move their family to Zanzibar, where they will support Christians in a minority context to grow in their faith and be a loving witness to their neighbours of other faiths.

Please pray for Dave and Tricia as they enter a season of training, preparation and transition. Pray for them to finish well as they wind up their current roles in England, and for peace as they prepare for the big move and everything this will entail.

Pray too for the funding needed to support them, especially for the success of the Tea for Tanzania event in Leicester on 16 May, that many will come and be enthused by the vision that the Rollett family share with our partners in Zanzibar.

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Uganda: Cawdells finishing service

After three years serving at Archbishop Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu, Sarah and Simon Cawdell left Uganda this week and are preparing to finish service as mission partners. Pray for them as they settle back into life in the UK, and for the new principal of the college, Dr Denis Ruhama, as he and his family get established in Gulu.

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UK: Pioneer Mission Training programme

CMS is hosting two open days next week: on-site in Oxford on Tuesday 21 April and online on Wednesday 22 April. These events are designed to help prospective students explore CMS Pioneer Mission Training options, including streams focused on African Christianity, Asian Christianity, children’s, family and youth work. Pray for people to attend these open days and see how the training could make a difference to their ministry. Find out more and book your place at https://churchmissionsociety.org/open

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‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’.  This was a proverb I learned growing up, and as I look out of my upstairs office window typing this I see a row of castles opposite.

by Rev Tina Hodgett

When the weather is good my neighbours sit in their gardens and pretend the others in the other gardens are invisible.

In ancient Biblical times people lived in tents that could be moved.  You’d see people coming from a long way away and would prepare to meet them on arrival, not knowing if they brought gifts or threat. In either case, as Abraham knew (Gen 18), offering lavish hospitality was a way of making it more probable the outcome of the visit was a good one for all.

Hospitality is about a posture of openness to the stranger. It is about holding a space for them and yourself to meet on shared ground as fellow human beings. A fellow human being is in need of water in the desert. She or he needs freshly prepared nutritious food, shade, rest. When we encounter others as fellow human beings – subject to bodily needs, physical and psychological safety, and a need to make meaning in our lives – we are more likely to see a stranger as an opportunity to share connection. Not barricade ourself into the castle of seeing people we don’t yet know as a potential threat.

When you read this it will probably be in the raw bright days after Easter Sunday. The encounter between Jesus and the couple on the road to Emmaus may be in your mind.  Sometimes we focus on what happens at the table in that story, but Jesus is hospitable way before that. In his tone of voice, body language, humble listening and responding to them in their distress and confusion, he has created space for them to see more and become more while they are together on the road.

This is what Pioneering Parishes aims to do and aims to help churches to do; create space for others to see more and be more through encounters with Jesus and others on the road.

Is being hospitable an important value for your congregation? Discover who your congregation aspires to be for God and your local community at the next Pioneering Parishes Values Setting and Embedding Workshop. Find out more.

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Explore the challenges of the multicultural church, how we can overcome them and discover hope too.

The future of both the church and mission is undeniably multicultural – shaped by migration, global Christianity, and shifting cultural realities. Yet for many leaders, this future feels more complicated than hopeful. Why is that?

In this webinar, Harvey Kwiyani, CMS Pioneer Mission Training African Christianity Programme Lead and lecturer, explores the deeper challenges beneath the surface of “diversity,” including questions of power, belonging, leadership, and theology.

Drawing on his wider work on cultural diversity and decolonising mission, he will offer a fresh vision for understanding cultural difference not as a problem to solve, but as a gift to receive – alongside practical insights for leading churches into a more shared, participatory life in God’s mission.

Dr Harvey Kwiyani

Harvey is African Christianity Programme Lead and Acts 11 Centre Lead.

He is a Malawian missiologist and theologian who has lived, worked and studied in Europe and North America for the past 20 years.

He has researched African Christianity and African theology for his PhD, and taught African theology at Liverpool Hope University.

Harvey is also founder and executive director of Missio Africanus, a mission organisation established in 2014 as a learning community focused on releasing the missional potential of African and other minority ethnic Christians living in the UK.

Take part

Free to attend. Please reserve your place to get the Zoom details.

Reserve your place

• See all pioneer events

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People from Dinka Twic and Dinka Ngok tribes, which have been in conflict since 2017, now worship together in a church plant in Turalei, Warrap State, CMS-Africa reports.

Many had thought such a thing would never be possible. But now, the people groups are working together to build bridges across a longstanding divide.

Children from the two tribes now play together and adults are building community. In their own words, “God has done this.”

The conflict is related to a dispute over a piece of land which is being claimed by both communities. This led to the outbreak of violence. A particularly bad instance of this in 2022 led to the displacement of thousands of people and massive destruction of properties as well as the loss of several innocent lives.

Women take the lead for peace

CMS partners have been facilitating an ongoing peace process and in June 2025, women from these groups came together for a special event: the Twic and Ngok Joint Women Peace Dialogue Meeting.

The event brought together religious leaders, United Nations Mission in South Sudan, government officials, community representatives and more, and was facilitated by local partner Regina Lueth, who teaches theology at St John’s Theological College in Wau.

Women from both people groups committed to be ambassadors of peace in their homes and communities, to encourage forgiveness and respectful dialogue and to lead peacemaking efforts.

They made an impressive list of formal commitments to work for peace:

1. Act as peace ambassadors in our homes and communities by messages by sharing peace messages with husbands, sons, daughters, and neighbours.
2. Denounce hate speech and incitement, especially through cultural mediums such as music and storytelling.
3. Lead peace dissemination efforts through radio stations, churches, schools, health facilities, and local gatherings.
4. Engage in women-led exchange visits and trust-building dialogue between the Ngok and Twic communities.
5. Encourage forgiveness and respectful dialogue at the family and community levels. Engage youth to discourage violent practices such as cattle raiding and retaliation.
6. Counter misinformation and disinformation through verified messaging and strengthen the local peace network.

Pray together

Pray for the women in these communities to actively look for big and small opportunities to build bridges between the two groups, and encourage each other to keep working towards peace. Pray for their desire and drive for peace to spread to those around them.

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John V Taylor, a former leader of CMS, once said, “Look to the fringes. Watch the things that are pushing out on the edge.”

Jesus intentionally sought out people on the margins and made them part of his story.

And today, the risen Jesus is still going to the edges: in the Middle East, in DR Congo, in Ukraine, across Britain and in so many other places and spaces.

It’s our great privilege to follow him and see him working, bringing new life. That’s why we love to say “There is life at the edges!”

Even when the world feels overwhelmed by shadow, new, living hope is rising where we least expect it.

Transcript

Hello friends and Happy Easter! He is risen!

I’ll say it again: He is risen!

Throughout Lent this year, CMS has been focusing on Jesus’ encounters with people at the edges, the edges of religious acceptability, the edges of society at the time, and the edges of many of the disciples’ comfort zones.

We’ve seen how Jesus intentionally welcomed people such as a severely disabled woman who could not even stand up straight, or people with leprosy, or outsiders like tax collectors, or others considered to be “sinners”.

Jesus paid special attention to these people, he brought healing to them and he made them part of his story.

So much so, that today, two thousand years later, we get to read about them and be challenged to keep the kind of company Jesus keeps.

A huge thank you to those of you who have been journeying with us in this, through our Lent email series, Fringe Dweller. We hope you have found it meaningful to look at these stories and consider how you might keep following Jesus to the edges in your life.

One thing that’s crucial to understand is that we are not called to the edges out of a sense of pity – we go to the edges out of a sense of possibility.

Jesus looked at someone like the Gerasene demoniac – and he saw a disciple, someone who, once healed, could take the good news of Jesus far and wide.

And it’s the same for us in CMS today.

We love to say there is life at the edges because it’s true.

We are seeing victims of horrendous violence become voices for peace in South Sudan and DR Congo.

We are seeing indigenous Christians in Latin America – once considered second-class citizens, rising up to become passionate leaders who are imparting the gospel to the next generation.

We are seeing marginalised women in the Middle East playing a key role helping others discover the love of Jesus.

And the list goes on and on. You see? There is life at the edges!

You might be looking at the state of the world right now, and be tempted to despair. Violence, poverty and oppression continue to push people to the edges. But new hope is rising, often where you might least expect to find it.

For example, just over a year ago we watched in horror as Goma, DR Congo was seized by the M23 rebel group, leading to chaos, bloodshed and fear. Yet, in the past year we have seen local Christians in DR Congo stepping up and bearing witness to Christ, offering help and hope to thousands. Our Easter appeal highlights this.

Yes, things are still incredibly difficult in Goma, but hope is breaking through. Because Jesus loves people at the edges.

I think of how after Jesus’ crucifixion, his disciples were devastated. Bewildered. Lost. And then – there he was!

It’s wonderful to remember that, just as he drew near to people at the edges before he died and rose again, Jesus continues to dwell with people on the fringes after his resurrection, too.

The first witnesses to the resurrection were women. He came to those who were broken in spirit and fearful, those who were full of doubt and traumatised, to Peter, who had denied him.

The risen Jesus still does this today.

He’s still choosing to appear to people at the edges and he’s still working through people at the edges to redeem the whole world back to wholeness.

A pastor and hip-hop artist called Trip Lee once wrote:

“I don’t know the future.
I don’t know the answers to every big question.
I don’t know why everything happens the way it does. But I know Jesus got up.
And that changes EVERYTHING.”

I pray that today, if you are struggling, you’ll allow the reality of Jesus’ resurrection to bring you profound joy.

Our struggles are not the end of the story. New hope is rising. We just have to know where to look.

As my predecessor John V Taylor advised: “Look to the fringes. Watch the things that are pushing out on the edge.”

I’ll close now with these words from Scripture; let’s read them together:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

Once again, happy Easter to you.

Truly, God is with us.

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Ukraine: for lasting peace, and true hope in the meantime

Mission partner Alison Giblett, who provides spiritual and material care to those in need through her church in Kyiv, asks for prayer for all those caught up in the war to seek God for their strength and peace, and ultimately for an end to the war, and lasting peace. Give thanks for army chaplains from Alison’s church ministering to and sharing hope with hundreds of soldiers, many of whom feel completely hopeless. Pray for renewed hope for all the people of Ukraine.

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