Put A Little Grace and Hope In Your Pocket

With economic recession looming large and severe weatherconditions causing chaos, some may feel that 2009 has got off to arather gloomy start. But the Methodist Church is offering a littlebit of hope and grace with their hugely popular 'In Your Pocket'booklet series.

Grace In Your Pocket and Hope In Your Pocket are just the latesteditions to hit the press following the success of earlierpublications on the themes of peace, prayer and joy. Since theseries began in 2006, more than 150,000 booklets have beendistributed.

Series Editor, Joy Fisher, said: "In a world facing financialmeltdown, grace and hope may seem to be in short supply, but thebooklets remind us that these values can transform our everydaylives.

"Prayer In Your Pocket and Joy In Your Pocket were hugely popularand we've found that churches are frequently using them forvisiting neighbours and friends and for prayer groups. It goes toshow that people really do want this kind of resource."

Grace In Your Pocket was inspired by a sermon given by thePresident of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Stephen Poxon atthe 2008 Methodist Conference. He described grace as being, "lovedcompletely...and there are no conditions... only this overwhelmingsense of being loved."

The booklets are ideal for mission-related activities and publicevents. Some of the contributions have been specially written,while others have been drawn from well-known authors such as MartinLuther King, Jane Austen and Superman star Christopher Reeve.

Eighty thousand Grace and Hope booklets have been produced and acopy of each will be sent out to Methodist Ministers.

"Hope is like the wing of an angel, soaring up to the heaven, andbearing our prayers to the throne of God," 17th century clergyman,Jeremy Taylor, is quoted as saying in Hope in Your Pocket; designedto offer hope in the midst of a busy life.