HeartEdge Update - January 2022

 

HeartEdge is an international, ecumenical movement of churches shaped by pastoral ministry, fostering an appetite for compassionate, cultural and commercial opportunities.

We're about:

• Expanding the imagination of a church captivated by scarcity.
• Church being fully-alive, transforming church and society through commerce, culture, compassion and congregational life.

In this month's Update (January 2022):

• Paula Gooder and Deborah Lewes on art and participation - plus Sarah Rogers on church and Heritage Trails.
• Jo Beacroft Mitchell on funding tactics and tips.
• Ched Myers on advocacy and Dave Andrews 'idiots guide'.
• Plus Credit Union's, 'Common Change', & 'Shared Enterprise Clubs'.
• And Victoria Turner on her new book and a generation of young people disillusioned with church, the meaning of 'woke', Christianity as a radical movement and breaking out from being boxed-in...

Read the January Update here.

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Visual Arts and HeartEdge (2)

 

HeartEdge is programming some excellent sessions on the visual arts over the next few weeks:

Art and the Liturgical Year: Bringing the Church Kalendar to Life
Monday, April 26th, 3:00pm EDT

Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/149461829355.

The visual arts have the power to change our perceptions and even transport us to unfamiliar places. Think about how you feel when you sit quietly and contemplate a stained-glass window or wander the halls of an art museum. Art offers us opportunities to transform our vision and perspective and to step into someone else’s shoes and community.

Imagine the way art influences our thinking about our faith - a painting in an English cathedral will likely bring a much different perspective of Jesus than one portrayed in a Coptic icon. In viewing each, we expand our vision of what our faith means and how different cultures express fundamental truths. Art is a means to stir our imagination and bring fresh meaning to our faith.

During this workshop, our panel will discuss engaging artists with parishes and congregations to explore art in the context of the Church calendar. We’ll also look at how our liturgical year can be a source of inspiration for artists and explore how artists can use their talents to open up our understandings of the faith in new ways.

Attendees will leave with tangible approaches to using visual arts in conjunction with scripture and our Church calendar to bring concepts from the liturgical year to life for congregations. Learn how exhibitions and installations can amplify the message of seasons like Advent or Lent and hear how this work benefits both artists and congregations. This workshop is presented by the CEEP Network in partnership with the HeartEdge Network and CARAVAN.

Panelists include:

• Janet Broderick - Rector, All Saints Beverly Hills; Beverly Hills, California
• Paul-Gordon Chandler - Bishop, Diocese of Wyoming; Jackson Hole, Wyoming (moderator)
• Catriona Laing - Chaplain, St. Martha & St. Mary’s Anglican Church Leuven; Associate Chaplain, Holy Trinity Brussels; Brussels, Belgium
• Ben Quash - Professor, Christianity and the Arts & Director, Center for Arts and the Sacred, King’s College London; Director, Visual Commentary on Scripture Project; London, United Kingdom
• Aaron Rosen - Professor, Religion and Visual Culture; Director, Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion, Wesley Theological Seminary; Co-founder, Stations of the Cross Public Art Project; Washington, D.C.

Introducing the Visual Commentary on Scripture

Thu, 29 April 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introducing-the-visual-commentary-on-scripture-tickets-148377347641.

The Visual Commentary on Scripture, TheVCS.org, is the first online project to introduce visitors to the entirety of Christian Scripture in the company of art and artists.

Celebrated with a launch event in November 2018 at Tate Modern, TheVCS.org seeks to connect the worlds of art and religion as a ground-breaking resource for scholars, educators, churches and interested readers looking for insightful, original explorations of art and the Bible.

In this talk, Canon Ben Quash, the project’s director, will share some of the challenges and discoveries he has encountered so far in this ambitious undertaking.

Ben Quash came to King’s College London as its first Professor of Christianity and the Arts in 2007. Prior to that, he was a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College and then of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. He is fascinated by how the arts can renew people’s engagement with the Bible and Christian tradition, and is directing a major 7-year project to create an online Visual Commentary on Scripture. He runs an MA in Christianity and the Arts in association with the National Gallery, London, and broadcasts frequently on BBC radio. He is a Trustee of Art and Christianity Enquiry, and Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals.

His publications include Abiding: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2013 (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit (T&T Clark, 2014), and he has written catalogue essays for exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, London, the Inigo Rooms in Somerset House, and the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.


Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story

‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ helps people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection as a springboard for exploring questions of faith.

Register for a Zoom invitation at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspired-to-follow-art-and-the-bible-story-tickets-148401610211.

• Sunday 2 May, Session 16: The Resurrection. Text: Luke 24:25-35. Image: ‘The Supper at Emmaus’, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, NG172.
• Sunday 9 May, Session 17: The Ascension. Text: Acts 1:1-12. Image: ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, about.1502-4, NG816.
• Sunday 16 May, Session 18: Pentecost. Text: Acts 2:1-39 (extracts). Image: ‘Pentecost’, Giotto and Workshop, about.1310-18, NG5360.
• Sunday 23 May, Session 19: Death of Stephen. Text: Acts 6:8 – 7:60 (extracts). Image: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen’, Possibly by Antonio Carracci, about1610, NG77.
• Sunday 30 May, Session 20: Saint Peter. Text: Acts 10:30-48. Image: ‘Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?)’, Annibale Carracci, 1601-2, NG9.
• Sunday 6 June, Session 21: Saint Paul. Text: Acts 9:1-19. Image: ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’, Karel Dujardin, 1662, NG6296.
• Sunday 13 June, Session 22: The New Jerusalem. Text: Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 22-27, & 22:1-5. Image: ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven’; central predella panel, probably by Fra Angelico, about 1423-4, NG663.1.

Navigating the Dark: A conversation between an artist and a theologian

Thu, 6 May 2021, 19:00 – 20:00 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/navigating-the-dark-tickets-148323582829.

Join us as artist Jake Lever is interviewed by Dr Paula Gooder, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Jake Lever is an artist who is interested in the power of visual art to draw us into an encounter with the sacred. He seeks to make work that invites a slowing down, a return to the liminal and the "real". During the pandemic, he has developed a new participatory project, making hundreds of tiny, gilded boats that people have sent by post as tokens of love, gratitude and solidarity to family and friends around the world. Website: www.leverarts.org.

Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. Her research areas focus on the writings of Paul the Apostle, with a particular focus on 2 Corinthians and on Paul’s understanding of the Body. Her passion is to ignite people’s enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Website: www.gooder.me.uk.

Art, Scripture and Contemporary Issues

In a short series, curators for the Visual Commentary on Scripture will speak about their experience of curating for VCS in order to assist in understanding more deeply the value and potential uses to which the VCS exhibitions can be put by churches.

The sessions will demonstrate a central premise of the VCS’s approach i.e. that the ‘world(s)’ of experience and action that the Scriptures describe can speak meaningfully to the ‘world(s)’ that present-day interpreters of the Scriptures continue to inhabit; and that the ‘world(s)’ to which art has responded in every epoch can speak meaningfully to both.

Session 1: Tue, 11 May 2021, 14:00 – 15:00 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-and-contemporary-issues-tickets-149131206453?aff=erelpanelorg. In this session Deborah Lewer will speak about her experience of curating an exhibition on Proverbs 11 exploring why she made the choices and decisions she did in relation to both text and images. Proverbs 11 is part of the oldest collection of proverbs in the book. It opens with a statement about the righteousness of true and accurate measures: Yahweh abhors a ‘false balance’ and delights in ‘an accurate weight’. Balance, uprightness, constancy, steadfastness, and diligence are characteristic of the ordered worldview of the proverbs. When their equilibrium is upset—by wickedness, crookedness, cruelty, avarice, folly, and violence—the ensuing consequences are both just and inevitable. Debbie is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow. In addition to her specialism in 20th-century German art, she is interested in relationships between visual art, faith and theology. She works extensively as a retreat leader and with churches, clergy and ordinands to open up the potential of a wide spectrum of visual art in worship, theological reflection and in pastoral contexts.

Session 2: Thu, May 13, 2021, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM BST. Register for a Zoom invite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-contemporary-issues-tickets-149683719033. In this session Caleb Froehlich will speak about his experience of curating the Cities of Refuge exhibition exploring why he made the choices and decisions he did in relation to both text and images. Numbers 35, Joshua 20, and Deuteronomy 4:41–43 record the appointment of six Levitical cities as ‘cities of refuge’ to ensure that if there was an accidental killing, the accused killer could flee to one of these cities and be protected from the menace of the ‘avenger of blood’. This session will consider the provisions of the biblical cities of refuge from the perspective of sanctuary-seekers. Caleb Froehlich is a researcher for the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology and an editor for De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. He holds a PhD in Religion, Art, and Culture from the University of St Andrews and has two principal areas of research: the intersection between religion and popular culture (with a focus on twentieth and twenty-first century religious history) and culturally engaged theology (with a focus on art and media as spiritual, religious, and/or theological in potentia).

Session 3: Tue, 25 May 2021, 14:00 – 15:00 BSThttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-contemporary-issues-tickets-148748287131?aff=erelpanelorg. In this session Susanna Snyder will speak about her experience of curating the Ruth 3-4 exhibition exploring why she made the choices and decisions she did in relation to both text and images. The brevity of the book of Ruth belies its significance. It offers an answer to some of the most important questions the people of Israel grapple with throughout the Old Testament. How are we to respond to refugees? How should we understand and inhabit boundaries? Susanna Snyder is Lecturer in Ethics and Theology at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and an Associate of the Centre for Theology and Modern European Thought, University of Oxford.

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T Bone Burnett - Image.

Visual Arts and HeartEdge

 

HeartEdge is programming some excellent sessions on the visual arts over the next few weeks:

Stations of the Cross

Thu, 1 April 2021, 16:00 – 17:30 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stations-of-the-cross-tickets-147886712137.

Monuments to the Future, Global, 2021, is an exhibition that uses art and reflection to explore the way in which, for people of all faiths and none, the Stations of the Cross speak into issues of injustice.

The exhibition takes viewers on a virtual journey around the world. Each station responds to a monument or memorial, reflecting a tumultuous year in which fresh memorials sprung up to grieve the dead and historic monuments to prejudice were toppled and dismantled.

In this workshop Revd Dr Catriona Laing, Dr Aaron Rosen and guest artists featured in the exhibition will reflect on the relevance of the Stations of the Cross, the way in which they speak into issues of injustice and the virtues of the physical experience of the first four years versus this year’s online experience.

Revd Dr Catriona Laing’s call to the priesthood was influenced by her desire to join those building the Kingdom of God with the poor and marginalized. Her academic interests, which stem from a childhood spent in the Middle East, are in the area of Muslim Christian relations and specifically the role of prayer in deepening inter-faith relations. Before coming to Brussels, she worked in parishes in London and Washington D.C.. In addition to serving St Martha & St Mary’s Anglican Church Leuven, Catriona is Associate Chaplain at Holy Trinity with a particular remit to encourage the chaplaincy’s social justice ministry.

Dr. Aaron Rosen is Professor of Religion & Visual Culture and Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary. As director of the Luce Center, he overseas research, teaching, and outreach, as well as exhibitions at the seminary's Dadian Gallery. He is also Visiting Professor at King’s College London, where he was previously Senior Lecturer in Sacred Traditions & the Arts and Deputy Director of the Center for the Arts and the Sacred.

Introducing the Visual Commentary on Scripture

Thu, 29 April 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introducing-the-visual-commentary-on-scripture-tickets-148377347641.

The Visual Commentary on Scripture, TheVCS.org, is the first online project to introduce visitors to the entirety of Christian Scripture in the company of art and artists.

Celebrated with a launch event in November 2018 at Tate Modern, TheVCS.org seeks to connect the worlds of art and religion as a ground-breaking resource for scholars, educators, churches and interested readers looking for insightful, original explorations of art and the Bible.

In this talk, Canon Ben Quash, the project’s director, will share some of the challenges and discoveries he has encountered so far in this ambitious undertaking.

Ben Quash came to King’s College London as its first Professor of Christianity and the Arts in 2007. Prior to that, he was a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College and then of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. He is fascinated by how the arts can renew people’s engagement with the Bible and Christian tradition, and is directing a major 7-year project to create an online Visual Commentary on Scripture. He runs an MA in Christianity and the Arts in association with the National Gallery, London, and broadcasts frequently on BBC radio. He is a Trustee of Art and Christianity Enquiry, and Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals.

His publications include Abiding: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2013 (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit (T&T Clark, 2014), and he has written catalogue essays for exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, London, the Inigo Rooms in Somerset House, and the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.

Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story

‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ helps people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection as a springboard for exploring questions of faith.

Register for a Zoom invitation at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspired-to-follow-art-and-the-bible-story-tickets-148401610211.

Sunday 2 May, Session 16: The Resurrection. Text: Luke 24:25-35. Image: ‘The Supper at Emmaus’, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, NG172.

Sunday 9 May, Session 17: The Ascension. Text: Acts 1:1-12. Image: ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, about.1502-4, NG816.

Sunday 16 May, Session 18: Pentecost. Text: Acts 2:1-39 (extracts). Image: ‘Pentecost’, Giotto and Workshop, about.1310-18, NG5360.

Sunday 23 May, Session 19: Death of Stephen. Text: Acts 6:8 – 7:60 (extracts). Image: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen’, Possibly by Antonio Carracci, about1610, NG77.

Sunday 30 May, Session 20: Saint Peter. Text: Acts 10:30-48. Image: ‘Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?)’, Annibale Carracci, 1601-2, NG9.

Sunday 6 June, Session 21: Saint Paul. Text: Acts 9:1-19. Image: ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’, Karel Dujardin, 1662, NG6296.

Sunday 13 June, Session 22: The New Jerusalem. Text: Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 22-27, & 22:1-5. Image: ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven’; central predella panel, probably by Fra Angelico, about 1423-4, NG663.1.

Navigating the Dark: A conversation between an artist and a theologian

Thu, 6 May 2021, 19:00 – 20:00 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/navigating-the-dark-tickets-148323582829.

Join us as artist Jake Lever is interviewed by Dr Paula Gooder, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Jake Lever is an artist who is interested in the power of visual art to draw us into an encounter with the sacred. He seeks to make work that invites a slowing down, a return to the liminal and the "real". During the pandemic, he has developed a new participatory project, making hundreds of tiny, gilded boats that people have sent by post as tokens of love, gratitude and solidarity to family and friends around the world. Website: www.leverarts.org.

Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. Her research areas focus on the writings of Paul the Apostle, with a particular focus on 2 Corinthians and on Paul’s understanding of the Body. Her passion is to ignite people’s enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Website: www.gooder.me.uk.

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The Band - When I Paint My Masterpiece.

HeartEdge Mailer | May 2019

HeartEdge Mailer | May 2019

• HeartEdge is an international ecumenical movement.
• We are churches and other organisations developing mission.
• We focus on 4 areas - commercial activity, congregations, cultural engagement and compassion.
• Join us! Details here.

Each month we collect and email stories, web links, news related to our focus: commercial activity, congregations, cultural engagement and compassion. Useful, inspiring, practical - it's a resource.

This month:

• Mari Andrew on grief, Lucy Winkett on homelessness, Sally Hitchiner on hosting refugees and Bill McKibben on climate.
• Match Trading, growing your own vegetables plus the technicalities of poetry nights and setting up as a music venue.
• Video shorts special - including 'One breath Around the World'.
• Remembering Jean Vanier and Rachel Held-Evens.
• Finally, Paula Gooder and an extract from her new book - 'Phoebe'.

Read the May Mailer here - "A monthly smorgasbord of ideas, focused around HeartEdge 4C's."

HeartEdge has two Introductory Days coming up which will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice. We'll do this by referring to:

• Congregation: Liturgy, worship & new congregations
• Commerce: Being entrepreneurial, growing income via enterprise
• Compassion: Grow participation to address social need
• Culture: Art, music connecting with communities

We'll start with refreshments from 10am and a programme from 10.30am.

• All our contributors are practitioners - a community learning by experience.
• Programme will include panel discussion and practical ‘how to’ session.
• Lots of opportunity to build networks, make connections, with time to meet over lunch and refreshments.

Practical, inspiring with lots to celebrate and take away - we hope you can join us:

• 11 June 'Newcastle HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests. A unique programme of theological reflection and local contributors. HeartEdge days focus around our HeartEdge 4 Cs with an emphasis on practical insight and ideas to take away. Book in here.
• 27 June 'Derby HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests - working across Derby and the surrounding area? Urban, suburban or rural? We would love you to join this practical one-day intensive introduction to HeartEdge with Sam Wells and guests. We're ecumenical and open to all. The day will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice in Derby. Book in here.
• The HeartEdge annual conference 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' will happen from 2 - 3 October in Edinburgh. The conference is a practical, two-day intensive of ideas, theology and connecting. It includes workshops on enterprise and commerce, launching cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community response. This year contributors include Winnie Varghese, Sally Hitchiner, Sam Wells, Mark Strange, Colin Sinclair, Sheena McDonald, Deborah Lewer, ID Campbell, Cormac Russell and many others. 2 & 3 October 2019 - Day 1 at The Parish Church of St Cuthbert, 5 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2EP and Day 2 at St John's Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4BJ. Further information from Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar HeartEdge, St Martin-in-the-Fields - Tel: 020 7766 1127, Email: jonathan.evens@smitf.org. To book in early-bird visit here.

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Buddy & Julie Miller - Orphans Of God.

Why there's no faith without doubt

The Lent Course organised by the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches is featured in the current edition of the Ilford Recorder.

Our Lent Course this year is entitled Build on the Rock: Faith, doubt - and Jesus! Based around Matthew 7.24 (Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock), the course starts by looking at faith and doubt. Is it wrong – or is it normal and healthy – for a Christian to have doubts? Is there any evidence for a God who loves us? We will hear from many witnesses. At the heart of a Christian answer stands Jesus himself. We consider his ‘strange and beautiful story’ and reflect upon his teaching, his death, his resurrection and his continuing significance.

The Course has five sessions: (1) Believing and doubting; (2) Jesus - our teacher; (3) Jesus - our saviour; (4) Jesus - conqueror of death; and (5) Jesus - Lord and brother. Produced by York Courses, the course comes with a good choice of wide-ranging questions designed to involve all members in lively discussion and also brings the thoughts of prominent Christian leaders into our own discussion group.

The Course Booklet has been written by best-selling author, Canon John Young. The Course CD contains five 14-minute radio-style starters for group discussion, with former BBC broadcaster Canon Simon Stanley putting questions to the participants: Bishop Richard Chartres (Bishop of London), Dr Paula Gooder and Revd Joel Edwards. Each session closes with a Reflection by Methodist minister David Gamble. Former Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, introduces the course.

Why do a York Course? Tens of thousands of people study a York Course each year:

"I like the format. Listening to the speakers on the CD helped to clarify my own thoughts as well as inspiring me with new ideas… The questions were challenging and well thought out. Altogether a very enjoyable course."

"York Courses are by far and away the best thought-out house-group material that I have come across. Excellent notes, a really useful range of questions, and stimulating audio contributions."

"Along with thousands of other Christians I have benefited greatly from participation in York Courses over the past few years, mainly as a group leader."

The Lent courses are organised by the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches (SKFC) and will run at:

· 2.00pm on Tuesday’s at St John’s Seven Kings (11 March, 18 March, 25, March. 1 April, 8 April)
· 11.15am on Wednesday’s at St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch (12 March, 19 March, 26 March, 2 April, 9 April)
· 8.00pm on Wednesday at St John’s Seven Kings (12 March, 19 March, 26 March, 2 April, 9 April)

Our SKFC Lent Service will be at 8.00pm on Monday 14th April at Seven Kings United Free Church.

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The Call - I Still Believe.

Care and share

Over the past six months at St John's Seven Kings we have been talking and thinking through how we are using who we are to serve God in the church, at work, with our family and friends, in the community and our voluntary/leisure activities. We began with a Vocations Sunday in September, continued by studying the SHAPE Course and, most recently, have had a Sunday morning series of video interviews in which members of the congregation have shared ways in which their faith is expressed through their work (paid and voluntary).

We are continuing this thinking into our Lent Course this year by using a Course called Care and Share which looks at the basics of pastoral care. The course aims to enable us to develop our skills in confidence and understanding and listening through five sessions covering: What is Pastoral care? Visiting and Listening; Making Contact; Dealing with loss; and Getting organised.

Many, perhaps all of us, provide care to someone else through work (paid and voluntary), in our family, with neighbours or friends, through our church. So, we can all benefit from reflecting on our approaches and thinking about the resources for caring which our faith provides. St John’s already has a committed group of people involved in pastoral visits, home communions, and prayer ministry. After coming to the Care and Share course, participants might want to think about whether they could be a part of that group or show care in other ways such as the prayer chain or Redbridge Voluntary Care, among others.

As in previous years, the Lent Courses are a shared activity with the other churches in the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches. This year, Goodmayes Methodist Church, Seven Kings Methodist Church and St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch are all hosting Lent Courses and all are welcome to join one of those groups.

These churches will be studying Rich Inheritance - Jesus' legacy of love, a York Course written by Bishop Stephen Cottrell, the new Bishop of Chelmsford. Jesus didn’t write a will. He left no written instructions. He didn’t seem to have a plan. At the end, as he hung dying on the cross, almost all of his followers had abandoned him. By most worldly estimates his ministry was a failure. Nevertheless, Jesus’ message of reconciliation with God lived on. It is the central message of the Bible. With this good news his disciples changed the world. How did they do it? What else did Jesus leave behind – what is his ‘legacy of love’? This course addresses these questions.

The participants on the Rich Inheritance course CD are: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols; writer and lecturer in Biblical studies, Paula Gooder; and author and public theologian, Jim Wallis. Dr David Hope introduces the course and Methodist minister Inderjit Bhogal provides the Closing Reflection at the end of each session.

Love is at the heart of both these courses. We love because God first loved us. (1 John 4:19). Pastoral care is at the centre of the church’s mission and ministry because it has one fundamental aim - to help people know love, both to receive and to give. Pastoral care is our response to God’s unconditional love and, through it, we follow Jesus’ command to ‘love one another as I have loved you’.

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Victoria Williams - Love.