Run away success for Tetbury’s Advent group

Tetbury Church has founded an Advent group for runners, which met for the first time this week. Thirteen members of the town’s running club gathered at St Mary’s Church for prayer before setting off on a run out into local countryside. As they ran they talked together about the topic for the evening, and half way into the run they stopped for a related Bible reading. Then they ran back to church for hot chocolate, and concluded with a time of meditation and prayer by candlelight.

Runner and Assistant Curate, the Revd Robert Church said: “It has been a great way to engage local runners, combining faith with sport and fellowship.

“Not all those who came along are church members, and those that are belong to a number of denominations. It seems very popular to combine physical exercise and spirituality, both of which are important aspects of human flourishing. We will be exploring more ways of combining these in the coming months as it has proved popular so far!

“Advent and Lent groups run each year in the benefice, which run like traditional house groups. They always follow a theme (this Advent’s is ‘the questions Jesus asks’).

“We are really happy that so many people chose to come along to this first group specifically for runners, 13 in the first week, with more pledged to come in subsequent weeks.”

The remaining sessions are on 6 and 13 December at 7pm, meeting at St Mary’s, Tetbury. All running abilities welcome.