Watch the video for the Distributed Church program and then meet me back here. It only goes for 90 seconds or so...
You watched it? What did you think?
Read MoreWatch the video for the Distributed Church program and then meet me back here. It only goes for 90 seconds or so...
You watched it? What did you think?
Read MoreMuch of the chocolate in Easter Eggs (in Australia as well as overseas), is made with cocoa from plantations on the Ivory Coast, West Africa, that use trafficked children as young as 10 years old as labour.
Today we're inviting you to join in 4 simple actions you can take to help make this Easter a #traffikfreeEaster.
Read MoreSomething different this time around...the video for the latest Mumford and Sons song, "Believe".
It's a poetic articulation of the challenges facing belief for young people today. Worth a look. What do you think?
Read MoreMovies are an important text these days for our theologising about our world. Resources to help us do that are essential.
So here's Movies and Meaning...
Recommended by Richard Rohr, the website says...
Read MoreThe theme of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (17-24 May) is - Jesus said to her, "Give me to drink". (John 4:7).
Here's all of the resources on offer so far for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Click on the these to download for free.
Read MoreHave a look at the Faith Formation Interchange. A neat interface has you browsing the areas of faith formation you are most interested in quickly and efficiently. It all looks great and gives you much to think about.
Roberto combines top notch thinking in the field of faith formation with canny IT skills. This means that the websites he curates are always full to the brim with the latest thinking, new ideas, great strategies and practical resources.
Read MoreNoted faith formation specialist John Roberto curates the Lifelong Faith website you can find here. This is a kind of one-stop shop with resources gathered from all around the world to enable parishes and other communities to take faith formation seriously.
I'd recommend a wander around the site but first sign up for the newsletter so that you can be regularly reminded of new material appearing at the site.
Read MoreThought about using the Pilgrim material? Looking for some wisdom from an experienced user? Here, Rev Michael Stalley talks about what attracted him to the Pilgrim material and offers some tips for those new to the program...
Read MoreMadame Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet) is an established though unconventional landscape gardener to the upper set in 1685, Paris. Dismissed by others applying for a major project, an amphitheatre-like fountain to be built in Louis XIV’s gardens at Versailles, she is quietly confident. But once successful in the competitive evaluation process, the huge dimensions of the task become clear, just as her chances of success become more murky. For not only must she meet enormous physical challenges but also the intrigues of a Court in which her innocence is seen as nourishment for hungry wolves...
Read MoreThe final two books in the Pilgrim: a course for the Christian journey series have been released.
Following the order of issues in the Catechism, the final two books are The Bible and Church and Kingdom. These use ...
Read MoreThere 's a new website for Education for Ministry (EfM) based in the states! This website hosts information, resources and more to make it indispensable for group members but also useful for anyone wondering what the program is all about.
Read MoreA message from Jela at Queensland Churches Together...
The theme of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (17-24 May) is - Jesus said to her, "Give me to drink". (John 4:7).
This year's resources feature...
Read MoreEvery time I visit a parish to lead the BIBLE360: Introduction to the Bible program, the questions of 'where to from here' is posed towards the day's end. The program raises heaps of possibilities to answer that question, from starting small groups to further in-depth reading. This new book will now...
Read MoreQuestion and answer sessions are an essential part of any state school Religious Education teachers methodology. They tend to allow us get to the point. The itch gets scratched!
With Episcopalian Questions, Episcopalian Answers, Ian Markham (Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary) has written a slim volume that does just that. He provides brief answers that manage to
Read MoreHere's an important hint (for the sake of repetition). Register your group (or your intention to start one) with Jonathan Sargeant. Why? Doing so will give you...
Read MoreEveryone loves a movie with a message, especially when that message is something uplifting or inspiring. Sometimes, though, the message can overpower the film, or more to the point, the message is something we could all agree with, but the film itself does not do that message justice. I'm not pointing any fingers (cough* Invictus), but does a movie like Selma live up to the message it carries?
Read MoreIf the most crucial location for faith formation is within the family, what will your families do over lent to prepare for Holy Week together?
Traci Smith of Seamless Faith fame has prepared this Lenten calendar of activities to help families answer that question.
Read MoreSince the Eucharist is so central to what we do as Christians, it stands to reason that people in our pews should have a good understanding of what is going on as they participate, right?
This 24 page booklet aims to enable that good understanding.
Read MorePlanning ahead for lent in 2015? Here's an idea or two...
The Archbishop of Canterbury's lent book for 2015 is In God's Hands by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Here's what the publishers say...
In God`s Hands is the 2015 Archbishop of Canterbury`s Lent Book. In this little gem of a book, Archbishop Desmond Tutu distils the wisdom forged through a childhood of poverty and apartheid, an adulthood lived in the glare of the world's media, and the long and agonising struggle for truth and reconciliation in South Africa, into the childlike simplicity which Jesus tells us characterises the Kingdom of God.
Archbishop Tutu has produced a meditation on the infinite love of God and the infinite value of the human individual. Not only are we in God`s hands, he says, our names are engraved on his palms. Throughout an often turbulent life, Archbishop Tutu has fought for justice and against oppression and prejudice. As we learn in this book, what has driven him forward is an unshakeable belief that human beings are created in the image of God and are infinitely valuable. Each one of us is a God-carrier, a tabernacle, a sanctuary of the Divine Trinity. God loves us not because we are loveable but because he first loved us. And this turns our values upside down. In this sense the Gospel is the most radical thing imaginable.
It is extremely moving that in this book Archbishop Tutu returns to something so simple and so profound after a life in which he has been involved in political, social and ethical issues that have seemed to be so very complex.
Or there's this one...
Sacred Space for Lent 2015 by the Jesuits in Ireland. A budget choice at $3.95 here's the blurb...
Now in its ninth year of publication, Sacred Space for Lent 2015 continues to attract and retain a devoted readership for whom it serves as a complement to the hugely popular website sacredspace.ie, and as a daily Lenten resource of unmatched quality. Sacred Space for Lent 2015 is a convenient, pocket-size book that makes it easy to enter into prayer during Lent—the most important season of the year.
Using the simple six-step method first developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, this booklet provides the same daily readings and prayer starters, accompanied by the weekly Lenten themes found in the larger book. Inexpensive and portable, Sacred Space for Lent 2015 is the perfect gift for your parish, campus ministry program, small group, friend, a family member, or for yourself.
And finally, Tom Wright's Reflecting the Glory
'You can't love an abstraction. You can't even love the idea of love. You can only truly love a person. The deepest, richest meaning of love must be personal love. The relevance of knowing God in Jesus is that when we love God in Jesus we discover how that love, that personal love, is given to us in order that it may be given through us.' This book of Bible readings and reflections, for every day from Ash Wednesday to the first Sunday of Easter, explores how we reveal Jesus even at the lowest and weakest points of our lives. Drawing on New Testament passages, with a particular focus on Paul's letters to the church in Corinth, Tom Wright shows that through God's Holy Spirit, the suffering but also the glory of Christ can be incarnate in our lives, enabling us to be the people of God."
With Darren Aronofsky's Noah earlier in the year and now Ridley Scott releasing his version of the Moses story, Exodus – Gods and Kings, Hollywood has gone mad for biblical epics. Noah saw some significant creative additions to the plot: rock monsters assisting in the construction of the ark and Noah facing an Abraham/Isaac style test of faith to name a few. How does Moses fare?
Read More