The Barclays Christian Forum 2017 Conference
'The City Lights are On'
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St Matthew’s gospel tells us we “are the light of the world,…don’t hide that light. Let it shine to all”.
Nick Woods of the Barclays Christian Forum (BCF), and Managing Director of Barclays, tells us about their recent amazing 2017 Conference held in Canary Wharf, which was part of Barclays, ‘The City Lights are On’ programme.
In the interview to the right, Samuel gives his impressions of the event.
“Following an opening welcome from the BCF and Transform Work UK, I introduced the evening and the work of the ‘Embrace’ network in Barclays, including that of the BCF, who hosted the evening.
As you can gather from the title of the conference, the evening focused on God’s Light shining in our world and in particular in our workplaces. This was the key focus in all the presentations from our speakers.
We heard from Pastor Matt Dew-Jones about the importance of lights and how God’s light provides us with a safe harbour and rescues us through Jesus. He also challenged us, saying that we are the light but how often do we let our light shine?
Our guest speaker Richard Borgonon, who has worked in insurance for many years, gave us his life story and what a story it was. His challenge was “what is your confidence in?” He then reminded us that we’ve been blessed with God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense (GRACE). Most importantly, we heard about Richard’s defining moment when through reading the words of John’s gospel, he clearly heard the Word of God. Richard now spends half his time introducing fellow senior executives to what the Bible actually says and encourages them to read the bible with him using Word One to One.
Part of our evening featured a ‘Light Buzz session’ during which a number of individuals told us about their roles in the workplace. The session gave us insight into how a number of senior executives from across the consultancy, legal, insurance and banking professions shine their lights at work. We even heard from the Barclays Chief Risk Officer and Chief Control Officer by video recording from New York about the important role their Hindu faith plays in their lives and how they keep their ‘lights’ on.
Finally Ros Turner gave us an insight into the inspiring work of Transform Work UK and Pastor Matt told us more about the work of St Peters Barge – the Canary Wharf’s floating church.
Ros has been involved with workplace ministry since 2003, supporting and growing leaders of Christian Workplace Groups across the professions, industry and commerce. Her passion is to see Christians thrive, to engage with their communities and be a positive influence there… and for many of us, our communities are our workplaces. Her personal approach has been valued by many workplace groups.
It was a marvellous evening and one consistent message came from all our speakers and panelists:
‘Bring your whole self to work – don’t hide your light! And help others to do the same’”
"The City Lights Are On" - Follow-up Event:
Christians in KPMG will be holding a follow-up event at their offices in Canary Wharf on 30th January.
The event follows on from the "City Lights are On" conference at Barclays, which was attended by 280 Christians from 30 different companies.
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