Children of Men

December's film on the second Thursday (11th) is 'Children of Men'. A tale set in troubled times with the coming of a baby who could bring hope and light. Some want that. Some do not.

Sound familiar?

Homer, Cartman and Bob Part 2: South Park

Next week on the 4th December we'll be looking to find God in the cartoon South Park. Read that sentence again if you need to - it isn't the most obvious choice, perhaps, but I hope you will be surprised. It is very rude and provocative (over 18s only I'm afraid), but incredibly sharp and insightful. They touch on Christianity fairly frequently, picking away at the rubbish bits. It's very funny too.

CafeChurch

On Thursday 27th November we'll be hearing about another exciting new development - Jo and Andy will be sharing their vision for a outreach church to meet in Costa Coffee. This will run alongside SofaChurch, and the two will be closely integrated. Jo and Andy will run the evening like a CafeChurch meeting might go to give us a flavour of what it will be like, and there will be a chance for questions and discussion.

Values

After Sheron's excellent session last night I got thinking about how it might be useful if we had a statement of our values as SofaChurch. Not in any sort of sign-up-or-else manner, but as a reflection of the sort of things that most of us believe.

To get things moving, Susie and I had a think and came up with these ten statements, which we'd love your feedback on. If you have any suggestions for alterations or additions then please please let me know (preferably via email at andy@sofachurch.com rather than as a blog comment). If you like it please let me know too, don't mind that done in public through blog comments... We'll discuss it in person one evening too, for non computer people, and hopefully come up with a consensus.

God

1. We try our best to follow Jesus - his actions and words

2. We welcome challenges that sharpen our understanding of God and are not afraid to ask difficult questions

3. We look for traces of God in the everyday, including the secular media, and encourage creativity as we recognise that God is creative

People

4. We welcome, accept and listen to everyone regardless of belief, sexuality, background or anything else that might lead to alienation in some churches

5. We are not judgmental as we acknowledge that we are all far from perfect ourselves

6. We value friendship and express our faith in our care for each other

Church

7. We recognise the importance of the Bible but have different opinions as to how we interpret it and how literally we read it

8. We try to create a physically comfortable space

9. We deconstruct man-made church traditions and avoid practices that exclude people without much church experience



10. We are open to being wrong about any of this

The Matrix

I'm terribly excited by this one. The film for November (13th) is The Matrix.

One of the best Science Fiction films of recent years, laced with allegories and commentaries on the nature of life, the universe etc, coached in spiritual language - it is an excellent celebration of post-modern thinking and spirituality.

It's also ground breaking in its effects and a downright compelling story from the outset - so even if the deep stuff bypasses you - come along for what I commend as one of the most superlative films in a long time (even if its sequels do not approach the spirit of this first of The Matrix films).

Homer, Cartman and Bob

Tonight is the first in our three part series looking at representations of Christianity in cartoons. We'll be looking at The Simpsons tonight, then South Park and finally God, The Devil and Bob.

Tonight's rating is PG.

Hope to see you there.