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Saturday 26 March 2022

humbler church Bigger God w/c Sunday 27th March 2022




 Welcome to our exciting HeartEdge programme for 2022. We hope you will be able to join us, whether at online events or at our in-person events around the world. You can find all our events on our website — and if you're a HeartEdge partner, you can upload your own events through the members' area.

Last year, we launched Living God's Future Now, an online festival of theology and practice. We hosted workshops, webinars, spaces to gather and share ideas, lecture series, and more. This year, we're continuing our programming with a new theme — humbler church, Bigger God.

HeartEdge is fundamentally about a recognition of the activity of the Holy Spirit beyond and outside the church, and about a church that flourishes when it seeks to catch up with what the Spirit is already doing in the world. There was a time when church meant a group that believed it could control access to God – access that only happened in its language on its terms. But God is bigger than that, and the church needs to be humbler than that. Kingdom churches anticipate the way things are with God forever – a culture of creativity, mercy, discovery and grace – and are grateful for the ways God renews the church through those it has despised, rejected, or ignored.

We hope this reflects the lessons we've learnt from the past year: still trying to live God's future now, re-imagining our faith and our calling as a Church in a changing world. Thank you for joining us for the journey — we can't wait to see what this year brings.

Church History course: 19.45 (GMT) Monday 28 March- Christendom; love it or hate it, you need to deal with it. This course provides an introduction to and an overview of church history. If we are to see a humbler Church and a bigger God, we need to deal with the history of the Church to understand where we are now, and why? Ruth Gouldbourne has been a Baptist minister for more than 30 years, ministering in churches in Bedford, London and Cheadle Hulme, as well as being a tutor at Bristol Baptist College. An Associate Fellow of Spurgeon's College, she is also Senior Research Fellow of IBTSC Amsterdam, and a Research Fellow of Bristol Baptist College. Register here.

Sermon Preparation with Sally Hitchiner and Sam Wells: 16:30 (GMT) Tuesday 29 March, livestreamed here. Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner discuss Sunday's readings and offer practical tips on preaching.

Community of Practitioners workshop: 16:00 (GMT) Wednesday 30 March, Zoom meeting. Email jonathan.evens@smitf.org to register. This is a space for practitioners, lay and ordained, to reflect on theology and practice. Each week, we alternate between 'Wonderings' and discussion of a work of theology. Book to be read is ‘Improvisation’ by Sam Wells. 'Wonderings' help us to reflect and pray on what has stood out for each of us in the last week. Newcomers are very welcome.

Faith in the time of the ‘new normal’: Session three - Same boat or same storm?: 31st March 7:15pm. Register here. A series of Lenten conversations hosted by The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education. This series aims to help congregations and house groups reflect on how Christians may understand the changes we’ve been through as a society, and the new ‘place’ we may be entering. It will draw on and introduce participants to resources from the tradition and offer them some tools for reflection to carry forward towards Easter. Sessions will take place on Thursday evenings during Lent and will be streamed live from the Queen's chapel to groups gathered online. Resources will be provided for the weeks where there are no hosted sessions.

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St Martin's Voices - Gloria.

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