I recieved the following this morning, which I've edited down a bit:
'Friends and Heroes', an animated series of Old and New Testament stories, went out on digital TV earlier this year and is now to be broadcast on BBC2.
The new broadcast schedule begins on September 11th and runs through till December 11th. The broadcast output is largely targeted at schools - the free lesson plans and pupil worksheets created in association with the Stapleford Centre will help teachers to use these programmes as part of the national syllabi for all the countries in the British Isles. A “Teachers’ Guide” to Friends and Heroes, and all the lesson plans are already available on http://uk.friendsandheroes.com/lessons.
The Friends and Heroes web site at www.friendsandheroes.com has lots more information – including the full BBC broadcast schedule. The web site also provides details of all the DVDs of the Series. These are fully accessible – with subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and for community languages used in Britain, and with audio descriptions for those with visual impairment. Unlike the broadcasts, these can also be used by churches – and of course outreach workers who visit many centres.
There is a kids section of the website with lots of free video clips, activities, puzzles and games at www.friendsandheroes.tv
If this new broadcast is successful, the BBC might consider showing Series Two and Series Three when they are completed in 2008 and 2009.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
What's wrong with this country
There were a lot of headlines and soul-searching editorials in the press yesterday following the tragic shooting of Rhys Jones in Liverpool. The Sun hoped that it would be a wake up call and tip us into changing as a nation, and quoted the Bishop of Liverpool. Today, alongside vital stories like 'vicious slug tried to eat my head', they are offering a £100,000 reward for help in catching Rhys's murderer, following the poor public response to appeals for help.
In a seemingly unconnected incident, a member of staff in a local jewellers yesterday encouraged me to lie in order to claim a free 'repair' under a warranty we had for a ring. It had gone in for resizing for the 2nd time, at a cost of £21, but the shop assistant advised me to say it had been damaged, so that it would be covered by the guarantee and be done for free. I wonder if, should someone break into the shop and steal a £21 watch, she'd think it no different? I said I'd rather not tell lies to save money, and paid up. She probably thought I was a fool.
But is there a connection? The Sun has to offer people money to get them to do what a decent citizen would do anyway. Why do we need to bribe people to be good? A shop assistant assumes that her average customer given the choice between
a) tell lies and save money
or b) tell the truth and pay what's owing.
would choose 'a'
In both cases, money overrides morality.
"I know, cause I've seen it, it was great, and I want it.... and I will stop at nothing just to get what I want... this is the modern way." The Kaiser Chiefs (The Modern Way) are spot on, we are not a moral nation, everything is about self interest. Shockingly, I was reading some popular Bible study notes this morning, trying to persuade me that a good reason to worship God was that it made God more likely to bless me. It's the same selfism wrapped in spiritual language.
Incidentally, £100,000 is the same as the Big Brother prize money. I don't know if that's significant.
In a seemingly unconnected incident, a member of staff in a local jewellers yesterday encouraged me to lie in order to claim a free 'repair' under a warranty we had for a ring. It had gone in for resizing for the 2nd time, at a cost of £21, but the shop assistant advised me to say it had been damaged, so that it would be covered by the guarantee and be done for free. I wonder if, should someone break into the shop and steal a £21 watch, she'd think it no different? I said I'd rather not tell lies to save money, and paid up. She probably thought I was a fool.
But is there a connection? The Sun has to offer people money to get them to do what a decent citizen would do anyway. Why do we need to bribe people to be good? A shop assistant assumes that her average customer given the choice between
a) tell lies and save money
or b) tell the truth and pay what's owing.
would choose 'a'
In both cases, money overrides morality.
"I know, cause I've seen it, it was great, and I want it.... and I will stop at nothing just to get what I want... this is the modern way." The Kaiser Chiefs (The Modern Way) are spot on, we are not a moral nation, everything is about self interest. Shockingly, I was reading some popular Bible study notes this morning, trying to persuade me that a good reason to worship God was that it made God more likely to bless me. It's the same selfism wrapped in spiritual language.
Incidentally, £100,000 is the same as the Big Brother prize money. I don't know if that's significant.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
denominational weather
Someone emailed and asked me if all the rain made me feel like a baptist, to which I responded 'no, more like an Anglican, slightly wet and hard to ignite'. Not sure how fair that is to my fellow anglicans, I guess it depends what day of the week you catch us.
I know there are various forms of the Light Bulb Joke attributed to different denominations (e.g. 'how many (insert your own church) does it take to change a light bulb - what do you mean, change?/11 - 1 to change a light bulb and 10 to form the subcommittee/3 - one to change the bulb and 2 to cast out the spirit of darkness in the old one/I told you we should have stuck with candles/1 - just stand him on a chair underneath the bulb, start playing Kendrick songs and rotate the chair etc.). Wondered if there were meteorological equivalents, what kind of weather patterns do we associate with being Pentecostal, Methodist, Catholic, charismatic, liberal etc.
I know there are various forms of the Light Bulb Joke attributed to different denominations (e.g. 'how many (insert your own church) does it take to change a light bulb - what do you mean, change?/11 - 1 to change a light bulb and 10 to form the subcommittee/3 - one to change the bulb and 2 to cast out the spirit of darkness in the old one/I told you we should have stuck with candles/1 - just stand him on a chair underneath the bulb, start playing Kendrick songs and rotate the chair etc.). Wondered if there were meteorological equivalents, what kind of weather patterns do we associate with being Pentecostal, Methodist, Catholic, charismatic, liberal etc.
Redemption
Excllent post on Peter Oulds blog about Learco Chindamo, the man convicted of killing Philip Lawrence, whose story (he won't be deported when he comes out of jail, even though he's not originally from here) has been all over the press and airwaves in recent days. Great example of not being blown back and forth by the winds of public opinion and silly-season scaremongering.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
New Wine thoughts
A couple of weeks after taking 2 day trips to New Wine, some thoughts on the conference. Fellow blogger Steve Tilley has already put up his thoughts, interesting reading!
Main talks - done by one of the several St. Aldates Oxford speakers, Simon Ponsonby. Hadn't come across him before - I liked the way he got into the Greek and wasn't afraid to dig deep into the text. Was a bit less sure about the fact that everything he said about the church was negative. Okay, it is appalling that during the whole of his selection process for ordination, nobody once asked him if he loved Jesus - something which for Jesus was a pretty vital qualification for leadership (see John 21). It was good to have a mixture of passion and scholarship, and to have one or two 'soundbites' - a quote from (surprisingly) Nietzche "a long obedience in the same direction" which is about as good a definition of discipleship as I've come across.
Seminars: I tended to pick out the ones on mission, and they were all very good. Lots about how things are changing and how to get the church ready, and John Dunnett from CPAS was especially good.
Went to one on 'community', which is something which keeps cropping up at the moment, led by a bloke who leads a community house in Bristol. Some good stuff on the kind of shared values and rules a community needs, and on the kind of things which lead people to live in community:
- defensive (to preserve a tradition)
- offensive (a sense of mission)
- spiritual (to create a place of prayer)
- vocational (a sense of calling)
- idealistic (seeking to create an alternative society)
and that the best and healthiest communities combine these qualities.
My struggle was that this was all about intentional community at the Premiership level - community houses, monasteries etc., and my quest at the moment is for an intermediate level - something which lies inbetween this and the common use of 'community' to mean people living in the same area or sharing one common factor (e.g. 'the online community'). How can the church, or a cell group, or any group of Christians, embody community in a deeper and more practical way? How can the mission cells in the new estates live as dispersed community in various households and workplaces, yet with common values, prayers and goals? I guess this would be something like the 3rd order Franciscans, or something like a 'rule of life' community which is bound together by the 'rule', even though they live separately.
Evening talks: Can't remember a thing about Monday apart from lots of knocking on a door with a big stick. It was about Revelation 3, but nothing specific has stuck. I was a bit tired by then anyway. Baroness Cox on Tuesday was excellent, talking about the persecuted church, obviously a woman of massive courage, but presented in such away that you forgot the speaker and put all your attention on the message. Frightening stories - Chrsitians in North Korea killed by having molten lead poured over them, Christians in Sudan being denied aid unless they convert to Islam (and then face the death penalty if they try to convert back), Christians in Nigeria being murdered and brutally assaulted by jihadist mobs. Hearing that a Dutch bishop wants us all to call God 'allah' alongside all of that just made me fume - the story is probably already being shoved in the faces of Christians in Muslim countries: 'look, one of your own bishops says we have the right name for God!'
General ambience: really good, liked the fact that coffee and cakes were served in all the venues, so you could grap a cappucino during a long anecdote, or munch through a chocolate doughnut during the soundcheck. The marketplace was full of interesting stuff, and found a company that does coffee machines, may be ordering one for our cafe service.
I always enjoy New Wine, though I find myself not getting as carried away in the worship as I once did, don't know if that's age or a bit of jadedness creeping in. (It may just be that the music isn't really my genre, if we had a lyricist who could rewrite Coldplay and U2 songs for worship that would be more my cup of coffee.) The festival doesn't seem to be getting 'stuck', there's been quite a bit of change at the leadership level, and a good variety of speakers and tweaks to the format. I also like the chance to get prayed for, which seems to be offered at New Wine at the slightest opportunity - the anonymity of a big festival is good, and it's a reminder that I need prayer just as much as the next man.
Main talks - done by one of the several St. Aldates Oxford speakers, Simon Ponsonby. Hadn't come across him before - I liked the way he got into the Greek and wasn't afraid to dig deep into the text. Was a bit less sure about the fact that everything he said about the church was negative. Okay, it is appalling that during the whole of his selection process for ordination, nobody once asked him if he loved Jesus - something which for Jesus was a pretty vital qualification for leadership (see John 21). It was good to have a mixture of passion and scholarship, and to have one or two 'soundbites' - a quote from (surprisingly) Nietzche "a long obedience in the same direction" which is about as good a definition of discipleship as I've come across.
Seminars: I tended to pick out the ones on mission, and they were all very good. Lots about how things are changing and how to get the church ready, and John Dunnett from CPAS was especially good.
Went to one on 'community', which is something which keeps cropping up at the moment, led by a bloke who leads a community house in Bristol. Some good stuff on the kind of shared values and rules a community needs, and on the kind of things which lead people to live in community:
- defensive (to preserve a tradition)
- offensive (a sense of mission)
- spiritual (to create a place of prayer)
- vocational (a sense of calling)
- idealistic (seeking to create an alternative society)
and that the best and healthiest communities combine these qualities.
My struggle was that this was all about intentional community at the Premiership level - community houses, monasteries etc., and my quest at the moment is for an intermediate level - something which lies inbetween this and the common use of 'community' to mean people living in the same area or sharing one common factor (e.g. 'the online community'). How can the church, or a cell group, or any group of Christians, embody community in a deeper and more practical way? How can the mission cells in the new estates live as dispersed community in various households and workplaces, yet with common values, prayers and goals? I guess this would be something like the 3rd order Franciscans, or something like a 'rule of life' community which is bound together by the 'rule', even though they live separately.
Evening talks: Can't remember a thing about Monday apart from lots of knocking on a door with a big stick. It was about Revelation 3, but nothing specific has stuck. I was a bit tired by then anyway. Baroness Cox on Tuesday was excellent, talking about the persecuted church, obviously a woman of massive courage, but presented in such away that you forgot the speaker and put all your attention on the message. Frightening stories - Chrsitians in North Korea killed by having molten lead poured over them, Christians in Sudan being denied aid unless they convert to Islam (and then face the death penalty if they try to convert back), Christians in Nigeria being murdered and brutally assaulted by jihadist mobs. Hearing that a Dutch bishop wants us all to call God 'allah' alongside all of that just made me fume - the story is probably already being shoved in the faces of Christians in Muslim countries: 'look, one of your own bishops says we have the right name for God!'
General ambience: really good, liked the fact that coffee and cakes were served in all the venues, so you could grap a cappucino during a long anecdote, or munch through a chocolate doughnut during the soundcheck. The marketplace was full of interesting stuff, and found a company that does coffee machines, may be ordering one for our cafe service.
I always enjoy New Wine, though I find myself not getting as carried away in the worship as I once did, don't know if that's age or a bit of jadedness creeping in. (It may just be that the music isn't really my genre, if we had a lyricist who could rewrite Coldplay and U2 songs for worship that would be more my cup of coffee.) The festival doesn't seem to be getting 'stuck', there's been quite a bit of change at the leadership level, and a good variety of speakers and tweaks to the format. I also like the chance to get prayed for, which seems to be offered at New Wine at the slightest opportunity - the anonymity of a big festival is good, and it's a reminder that I need prayer just as much as the next man.
Monday, August 20, 2007
British Food Fortnight
There's a chance to stop eating curry for breakfast from 22nd September - 7th October. Our rural affairs chappy has sent some stuff on British Food Fortnight, which might make for some creative outreach uses of the Harvest season. Jesus seemed to like meeting people over food, and quite a lot of folk will be having their Alpha launch suppers around that time as well. Maybe I should do a sponsored eat, as there'll be so much food doing the rounds.
The blurb for BFF and churches includes this bit:
Among the possibilities you may consider:
· Link with other people who may be doing something in British Food Fortnight, e.g. local shops, pubs, farms, markets, restaurants, hotels & schools. www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk lists events and who is taking part.
· Get in touch with your local school and offer to help them celebrate British food and farming as well as harvest festival. www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk has lots of ideas on how to do this.
· Offer space in church literature, parish magazines, community newsletters for mention of what others are planning or doing for British Food Fortnight and flag worship as being part of the event.
· Add elements to your harvest thanksgiving that will make it even more appealing to those who do not normally come – the young, shop workers, migrant workers, cooks/chefs, food processors, retailers, farmers.
· Explore how raw materials turn into the finished product – cooking utensils, shopping trolleys, tasting opportunities as well as a procession of raw materials and finished products.
· If others are holding events talk to them and offer a small additional worship element, even just an opening prayer and an easy to sing item.
· Arrange a Harvest Supper on a farm with local food and drink, a short act of worship in a barn and finish with a barn dance or similar.
· Ensure that any church catering, particularly during this fortnight, uses local food and drink and Fair Trade products.
· Contact local organisations that have a meal as part of their life e.g. Schools, Rotary, Lunch Clubs, Old People’s Homes and suggest they organise a special British Food Fortnight meal and offer someone from the church as a speaker.
I'm making contact with the local garden centre to see if we can do a Harvest/Pet blessing thing around then. Anyone else in Yeovil area feel inspired, or sufficiently hungry.....?
The blurb for BFF and churches includes this bit:
Among the possibilities you may consider:
· Link with other people who may be doing something in British Food Fortnight, e.g. local shops, pubs, farms, markets, restaurants, hotels & schools. www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk lists events and who is taking part.
· Get in touch with your local school and offer to help them celebrate British food and farming as well as harvest festival. www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk has lots of ideas on how to do this.
· Offer space in church literature, parish magazines, community newsletters for mention of what others are planning or doing for British Food Fortnight and flag worship as being part of the event.
· Add elements to your harvest thanksgiving that will make it even more appealing to those who do not normally come – the young, shop workers, migrant workers, cooks/chefs, food processors, retailers, farmers.
· Explore how raw materials turn into the finished product – cooking utensils, shopping trolleys, tasting opportunities as well as a procession of raw materials and finished products.
· If others are holding events talk to them and offer a small additional worship element, even just an opening prayer and an easy to sing item.
· Arrange a Harvest Supper on a farm with local food and drink, a short act of worship in a barn and finish with a barn dance or similar.
· Ensure that any church catering, particularly during this fortnight, uses local food and drink and Fair Trade products.
· Contact local organisations that have a meal as part of their life e.g. Schools, Rotary, Lunch Clubs, Old People’s Homes and suggest they organise a special British Food Fortnight meal and offer someone from the church as a speaker.
I'm making contact with the local garden centre to see if we can do a Harvest/Pet blessing thing around then. Anyone else in Yeovil area feel inspired, or sufficiently hungry.....?
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Rural Fresh Expressions Conference
I had a flier about this a few months back, but there were exasperatingly few details on the website. No longer....
The conference is 13-14th September, so less than a month away now, and is being held in Leicestershire. It costs £85, and the parent website www.ruralmissions.org.uk tells you more about the folk who are organising it.
The website itself is a good idea - I found it a bit busy, and it's rather frustrating that you can't find out what free goodies are available to subscribers until you become a subscriber. There are, apparently, articles and resources which you can get, but until you sign up for a tenner they won't tell you what they are. I'm with the Anglican Church Planting website on this one - just put it all up for free. Or maybe I'm just a stingy northerner.....
In the meantime, if you want to think about rural fresh expressions of church but can't make the conference, the very good Expressions 2 DVD from the Church of England has a 20 minute section on rural fresh expressions, with 4 different examples of new forms of church in rural areas. The good thing is that little of it is rocket science, and there are some discussion notes available too, along with a full transcript of the DVD.
The conference is 13-14th September, so less than a month away now, and is being held in Leicestershire. It costs £85, and the parent website www.ruralmissions.org.uk tells you more about the folk who are organising it.
The website itself is a good idea - I found it a bit busy, and it's rather frustrating that you can't find out what free goodies are available to subscribers until you become a subscriber. There are, apparently, articles and resources which you can get, but until you sign up for a tenner they won't tell you what they are. I'm with the Anglican Church Planting website on this one - just put it all up for free. Or maybe I'm just a stingy northerner.....
In the meantime, if you want to think about rural fresh expressions of church but can't make the conference, the very good Expressions 2 DVD from the Church of England has a 20 minute section on rural fresh expressions, with 4 different examples of new forms of church in rural areas. The good thing is that little of it is rocket science, and there are some discussion notes available too, along with a full transcript of the DVD.
Mill House Retreats, Devon
Free plug for a very nice place just over the Devon border, if you want a retreat but haven’t fixed to go anywhere yet. Good rooms, lovely home cooking, lots of comfy chairs, books galore, very peaceful setting, had a very restoring 3 days there earlier this week.
Website is http://www.millhouseretreats.co.uk/, and it’s very easy to get to by public transport – Tiverton Parkway train station is just a couple of miles away, longer if you take the scenic route by the Great Western Canal.
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