What's Going On?
Stay in touch with what’s going on with Celebrate Recovery across the UK.
Talking about Recovery and Jesus at a Local Festival
Elspeth Clayson (July 2024)
Highlighting Faith at a Recovery Festival
On the 20th June, I took Celebrate Recovery to the Recovery Festival in Bristol, an event I attend every year. The festival featured 40 stalls focused on various aspects of recovery, but our stall stood out because we were the only one that recognised Jesus Christ as Higher Power. This unique aspect sparked a lot of interest and comments from attendees. It was also a fantastic opportunity to distribute our flyers, and many people showed great interest in our message and programme.
Christy McMullen (June 2024)
CR UK Director Tony Turner, explains in a UCB Interview how
Celebrate Recovery works
Following the Prayer Recordings Tony did with UBC Radio, Tony was further asked to talk more about what Celebrate Recovery is and how it differs from other recovery groups.
Listen to the Interview
Tony Turner
A Celebration Evening
How do you celebrate with your church family and community the changes God is making in people’s lives through your Celebrate Recovery ministry?
Our Newcastle Celebrate Recovery group holds an annual Celebration Evening and invites the whole church family and friends. It’s free, and is always an encouraging evening as we praise God, hear testimonies, and celebrate Christ-centred recovery in creative ways. We hope it blesses the church family as it blesses the Celebrate Recovery group to have their presence and support. The next event is due to take place on the 11th November 2024, make a note in your diary, further details will be posted here nearer the time.
The 2023 Celebration Evening was held in November. It was a great evening of hope and praise. We live streamed the event for those unable to join us. You can still watch it here.
We’d love to hear what other Celebrate Recovery groups in the UK are doing to spread the good news that Jesus Christ is changing lives. Please send in pictures and information!
Catherine Robinson (November 2023)
Prayer Recordings
In November 2022, we were approached by UCB to do 5 one-minute recordings as prayer topics for their radio programme, these have now been posted onto our website. Prayer is an important part of Celebrate Recovery and the topics that we shared on the UCB radio are ongoing topics that are important to us all. Can I encourage you to use these as a starting point for your ongoing prayers for this important ministry, as the prayer topics will be an ongoing focus for us, as we continue growing and developing this great ministry.
Prayer 1
Prayer 2
Prayer 3
Prayer 4
Prayer 5
Tony Turner
The UK Recovery Walk
September is ‘recovery month’ and the UK Recovery Walk – an initiative headed up by ‘Faces and Voices of Recovery’ or F.A.V.O.R – has become an ever-growing and popular event. Click for more information on their website.
The 2022 Recovery Walk and Festival was held in Newcastle, in North East England. The Celebrate Recovery group at Jesmond Parish Church were invited to take part in the walk through the city centre and to be part of the Community Village at the festival which followed.
The event provided many opportunities to share with people from other recovery groups and organisations that our Higher Power is Jesus Christ. Here are a few comments about the day from the Celebrate Recovery team who attended:
“It was great to get to know each other better as we served!”
“Jesus has changed my life through Celebrate Recovery; it’s only right I fly the flag for Him when I can so that other people hear that He can help them too.”
“What a great day and a great atmosphere!”
“People need to know there is support out there and that recovery is possible. Today was about giving hope to people who are struggling with addiction.”
The 2023 Recovery Walk
The 2023 Recovery Walk will be held in Hull on Saturday 23rd September. We are hoping we’ll have a Celebrate Recovery presence again to fly the flag for Christ-centred recovery. Maybe you can join in too?
Catherine Robinson (September 2023)
The Recovery Album
Principle 8 of Celebrate Recovery encourages us to
“Yield ourselves to God to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.”
Since faith in Jesus Christ was pivotal to my own recovery from eating disorders, I love telling others that there is hope for change for them too. It is the desire to share this good news that prompted me to launch a website, The Recovery Album, offering Christ-centred encouragement for the recovery journey.
Four growing recovery-themed albums – Bible verses, blogs, social media posts, and songs – aim to bring hope to others. I also share my testimony of how God freed me from eating disorders, and of course, take the opportunity to encourage visitors to the The Recovery Album to seek support for their hurts, hang-ups and habits at a Celebrate Recovery group.
Please take a look and share what’s useful with those you know who need some hope in their life.
Catherine Robinson
Christian Resource Exhibition
At the beginning of 2022, we were on a course of re-building after the pandemic, a part of this process was looking to advertise more to share the good news about this great ministry. In October, we linked up with Mark Macklin of Purpose Driven Ministries UK and attended the Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown Park London. There were numerous stands ranging from church supplies, Christian conference centres, social concerns, international ministries. In fact, there were so many that to wander round and absorb all that was on offer would take hours. I don’t think I have spoken to so many people in such a short time. It was exciting when people expressed an interest in Celebrate Recovery; this made me realise the importance of being more proactive in the sharing of this great ministry. I came away knowing that there is a lot of work to do. Next year the Exhibition will be at the NEC Birmingham. It was a blessing to re-establish our relationship with Mark and Julie Macklin of Purpose Driven Ministries and once again work together to promote Celebrate Recovery. There is no doubt in my mind going forward this is going to be a key relationship for us all especially for resources. We had a great time together. It was like a tag team; anything CR related Mark passed it on, anything Purpose Driven went to Mark.
Tony (left) handed out 200 of our new ‘Celebrate Recovery Information Booklets’
To purchase official Celebrate Recovery resources, click the button below:
For Celebrate Recovery UK information booklets and UK testimonies, click on the button below:
Tony Turner (October 2022)