After winning this month's Student Group Recognition, Christian Union President Lila Jones tells us all about their awesome events, their weekly meetings and how you can get involved with this great society.
A huge congratulations to Christian Union, this month’s winner of Student Group Recognition! They’ve done fantastic work this year and truly deserve this recognition. Make sure to get in touch if you’re interested in getting involved.
Below is a blog written by their President, Lila Jones!
Get to know more about Christian Union
As members of the Christian Union we love making people feel welcome, whether at our weekly meetings, at larger events or just on campus generally. We start every year helping new students get settled into campus by handing out over 1200 ‘fresher packs’ on arrivals weekend, helping the international team give tours and running inclusive and sociable activities during the week. This year, we have again welcomed many new students of all years, countries and backgrounds, growing our CU with as many as 80 people at our regular Thursday meetings!
Tell me all about their events!
In October we ran two lunchtime events in Medicine where we offered free Domino's pizza to all those who attended, and hosted talks from guest speakers including ‘Science: Is There Room for God?’ and ‘Jesus: History or Hoax?’. We saw over 80 different people in total attend these and it was a fantastic opportunity for our members to get involved with organising and supporting, whilst offering all students the opportunity to hear what Christians believe.
We always hope to provide high-quality events from the minimal details like the room décor and refreshments to an engaging and thought-provoking talk, to ensure enjoyment and participation from all attendees at our events outside of their academic experiences.
During the Christmas period, we offered a free Christmas roast dinner event held at a local church for any student who wanted to join us. We had around 50 students attend with around half being international students, some of which were trying a British Christmas dinner for the first time! It was a great evening where different nationalities and ages could all eat together, play games and hear about why Christmas is an occasion to be celebrated.
Continuing the festivities, we sang at the University Christmas Tree ‘Light Switch-On’ contributing to the Christmas cheer and advertising our annual Carol Service in the Chapel. We saw dozens of people attend to sing alongside the Jane Holloway choir, hear a message about the significance of the birth of Jesus and to receive a gift of a mince pie, candy canes and a new testament.
Most recently, we organised and ran a full week of events called ‘BELONG’ where we gave out free Domino's pizza every lunchtime alongside a talk about the Christian faith with time for a Q&A where people could inquire and question what we believe. We were thrilled to see our CU members get involved with flyering, organising, volunteering and bringing their friends along.
We were so pleased that over 200 people attended our events over the course of the week and had the opportunity to meet new people and listen with open ears to the talks we hosted. It was a pleasure to offer the space for people to ask the big questions about life and explore others’ viewpoints and answers.
What about their weekly meetings?
Every Thursday we hold a meeting on campus. These consist of singing worship songs, listening to a short talk by a local church leader or student worker. We hope to help members grow in their faith and relationship with God, build those friendships with other members and get stuck in with both our events and a local church where they can also serve and belong during their time at university.
Our meetings and events are always open to everyone regardless of what they believe about Christianity so if you would like to find out more or meet with someone from the Christian Union to ask any questions, just like us or message us on Facebook and Instagram at @RoyalHollowayChristianUnion.
Lila Jones // President, Christian Union