Photography

Since this month is a five Thursday month we're having a bonus creative evening. Since it's going to be lovely and sunny* I thought we'd do some photography outside. Bring a camera if you have one (digital or film - doesn't need to be anything special) and computer connecting lead, I'll get together some gear too. No particular skills or knowledge required!

*in our hearts, not meant to imply any weather foreknowledge.

Update - the results can be seen here.

We had three themes to cover:
Beauty in the everyday
Contentment
The dying church

Greenbelt 2009

Let's all go!*

It's over August Bank Holiday weekend (28th - 31st August) and tickets are 15% cheaper if you get them before April 30th.

Good stuff this year includes Rob Bell, Tim Hughes, John Bell, Doug Horley (for the littlies) and The Band With No Name (for the bigger littlies). There may also be some women there.

If you've not been before, let me describe my Greenbelt to you. It's a time to kick back in a field and get a bit scruffy. A time to breathe in lungfuls of air and forget your to-do lists, as you listen to words and tunes that make you remember what's important and what's really not. It's a time to eat cheesy crepes with greasy fingers and feel the sun (and rain) on your face. Best of all, it's a time to experience the huge relief of discovering that there are hundreds of people who think just like you do.  

For more info, visit the Greenbelt website.

*If money is an issue but you and/or your family would like to come, drop us an email and we'll come up with some sort of cunning plan...

Juno

This month's film is Juno - a comedy about a teenager who gets pregnant. It is supposed to be very engaging and life-affirming. Thursday 23rd April, 7.30.

Low Sunday

From Maggi Dawn:

It's Low Sunday. One week on from Easter. Traditionally the day when we remember Thomas, the disciple who doubted.

It isn't true, but many in the Church seem to believe that doubt is the antithesis of faith. In fact, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but unbelief.

"Dubious questioning", wrote Coleridge, "is a much better evidence than that senseless deadness which most take for believing. People that know nothing...have no doubts. Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have the disposition to believe, and doubt in order that you may end in believing the truth."

Money discipleship challenge

I have a plan. And as as an ex-'shopaholic', it's an exciting one.

You know the U2 song 'Beautiful Day'? There's a line in it that goes, "What you don't have, you don't need it now." Well, my plan for this challenge is to stop shopping for crap I don't need. Because if I'm honest, I probably do have everything I need by now.

I've been on my new 'not-shopping-for-crap-I-don't-need' regime for a few weeks now and it's really rather nice. Instead of mooching around shops, I'm finding all sorts of other things to do with my time. Kitty and I are exploring the local area, checking out new playgrounds and watching grazing bullocks. We've been snooping round derelict houses and collecting shells and pine cones. We've planted seeds and watched bulldozers in action. I've found bits for the garden on Freecycle and paid visits to people I've not seen for a while.

And I've decided to just forget fashion; I'm too old to keep up these days anyway. The plan is to buy the clothes I need, only when I need them. (Hopefully M&S will start selling Fairtrade versions of my staple boys uniform polo shirts soon.)

Anyone else got a money resolution to share?

Discipleship celebration meal

This Thursday is the end of our money discipleship theme. The plan is to mark the end with a celebratory act of worship together to commit all that we have done, thought about and pledged to God.

(I am somewhat reluctant to use the word 'celebration' considering the incredibly hard time that many of us have been through this year. I am not thinking of celebration in a brainless 'everything is blissful and if you disagree we'll pray for you' that many of us will recognise from other churches that we have been involved with. Easter reminds us that life can and will be a mixture of wonderful moments mixed in with brutal sadness. We can, however, celebrate the occasional glimpses of hope that we can see in the middle of awful situations. God will redeem this messed-up world, and we can celebrate this bigger picture with faith. And if any of us do not have enough faith at the moment then maybe the rest of us can hold them up.)

I'm open to suggestions, but my current idea is to have three aspects to the evening.

First, if everyone could bring along what they have done with the four tasks. We can display the arty ones and collect the text ones together, and I can hopefully get the book together for a couple of weeks' time.

Second is cooking and eating a meal together, using ingredients that are cheap and either local or fair-trade. I've got this in mind followed by a chocolate tart. I think I know how to get hold of ethical ingredients for these. If anyone wants to to help get the ingredients please let me know, otherwise I'm happy to get them. Bring your pasta makers if you have them!

We will finish with something to commit ourselves as disciples and share what we are going to do differently (task four).

We can also discuss what our next theme will be!

Please pass any comments or suggestions my way.

PS It would be great if people could prioritise this evening over other SofaChurch meetings - I'm not saying that you must all come, but if you only come to, say, one in four please try and make this the one! Simply because it would be lovely to have your company.

Pink thinking

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