Worship Ideas

The Dalai Lama is going to be in Canberra soon. We received an email suggesting we might be interested in going, and I passed that on to a range of people. One of them emailed back saying that I needed to be truer to the Word of God - that the Dalai Lama "may be a good man but he stands for everything that my Christian faith says is unacceptable".

This very real story seems to be a living expression of the Acts passage for May 6 - the sheet of food dropping from the roof that Peter sees in his vision.

I think we've been sidetracked around Easter. I reckon that Mel Gibson's movie was an exaggerated form, but just made the sidetracking clear. I wonder if we can celebrate Easter without indulging in voyeuristic violence.

Faith for Households
Peacemaking - A Christian practice for Lent
John Emmett, Kippax Uniting Church

Have you ever looked at ‘before and after’ photographs? Family photograph albums provide opportunities to see family members as children, young adults, then as aged adults.

Comparing photographs, we contrast each family member’s appearance. Often we see similarities between family members, which develop an image. A concept of family likeness forms. We can identify family members by applying visual concept we carry of the family image.

Lent often seems to be used as a time for personal reflection, about personal repentence, about personal devotion and piety. What if it got opened up into a "wider" concept. Luke's readings seem to do this pretty well.

We're going to be doing some playing with the idea of Lent being a "journey into the unknown" with each week being about a journey beyond something.

Lent 1: Beyond the blockages of life
Lent 2: Beyond political power towards God's companionship [PDF postcard]