Asking the big questions

by Peter Glasgow

As the Christian Union we want to give every student in UAL the chance to investigate who Jesus was, who he claimed to be and then decide for themselves how they want to respond.

As a society we got really stuck into freshers week. We had a buzzing stall at the Freshers Fair where new students could find out what a Christian Union is and get information about some of the events that we are putting on.

One afternoon we put on a ‘Great British Tea Party’, to which students were able to come along at any point in the afternoon to enjoy tea and home-baked cakes and make some friends. Around 50 students dropped by over the course of the afternoon and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the company – and cake!  

Who was Jesus?

'Jesus: Mad, Bad or God?' was the title of our freshers evening event. We had guest speaker Charlie Skrine come along to give a very engaging talk, asking the question: “Who was Jesus? Was he mad, was he bad, or could he actually have been God?” 

We had time for questions and there were some keen discussions at the end of the evening. The Student Union’s Create Late event was another chance for our society to meet freshers and get to know them.

We put on a creative activity where students could come and respond to the question “Who am I?”, using potato-prints, poster paints and all kinds of other fun materials.  

Each of UAL’s six colleges has its own Christian Union meeting every week. This is the perfect place to come along, make some friends and get your chance to investigate who Jesus was.

This term we are looking at several parts of Luke’s biography of Jesus in the New Testament.

We will be examining the evidence from this historical account and try to discover what makes Jesus
one of the most widely known and controversial men in history.

It doesn’t matter what your experience is, or whether you’ve read the Bible before or not. This is a really relaxed environment where you can bring whatever questions you have and learn more about who Jesus actually was.

Once a month we get all six colleges together for a UAL-wide meeting at the Student Hub in High Holborn. In those monthly meetings we will be looking at some of the huge questions that people have about Christianity and we will be trying to work through those over the year.  

Join in the meetings
We hold regular college-wide  meetings for UAL students. The date for the next college wide meeting will be available on the UAL Christian Union Facebook page, so keep an eye out for all the details there. On that page there are also all the details of the weekly Christian Union meetings, so you can find out when and where the next meeting is at your college.

Upcoming events

December 1
Christianity: What’s in it for me?
“Christianity is just a bunch of rules, why would I want to be a Christian? What’s in it for me?” Come along to think through whether there is anything good about being a Christian, enjoy some food and chat.

December 6
Carol Service
A fantastic evening for students all over London - come along to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere, sing carols and hear about the greatest news in the world!

December 8
UAL Christian Union Christmas dinner: A meal and a message!
A chance to enjoy Christmas dinner and a short talk, thinking about hope and satisfaction.  

In addition to the Christian Union events there are plenty of church services that you can attend. We highly recommend:

All Souls Langham Place
2 All Souls Place London,
W1B 3DA
Every Sunday at 6.30pm

Visit the UAL Christian Union Facebook page for more details and dates of events around the UAL campuses.