Worship symposium

'Symposium'? We think it's upmarket for 'conference'. Whatever! This definitely looks like a BIG event with plenty of 'names' taking part....

Check London School of Theology for full information.

Excellent resource

A terrific gateway to a wide variety of resources. Well worth an exploration.

www.alternativeworship.org

Grave matters

The BBC website reports an interesting trend that looks set to add new colour to one of the occasional offices.

Garish vulgarity, or a helpful way of allowing people to express their love for the departed?

Any thoughts from the CL community?

In fact, a warm welcome to any comments on the changing ways in which church leaders can serve people through funeral and bereavent ministry.

Click to read Stickers on Coffins (BBC)

Click to find out about Colourful Coffins.

Forgotten classic?

Thanks to the CL reader who recommends this once-popular Christian author....

Each of these remarkable monologues/prayers/mediations takes its jumping-off point from an easy-to-overlook aspect of everyday life:

• The Telephone
• The Swing
• At the door
• The tractor
• Prayer before a five-pound note.

Quoist's gift is to make connections between the most ordinary aspects of our life - and our life in relationship with God. Quoist comments:

If only we knew how to look at life as God sees it, we should realize that nothing is secular in the world, but that everything contributes to the building of the kingdom of God.

Published in the 1950s, Quoist's books were tremendously popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The remain fresh and challenging today.

And they are still in print!

Senior Service

Thanks to subscribers who have commented positively on our recent article on the church and older people.
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Don't forget that for every article in the printed magazine, the CL website offers a useful selection of live links to related sites.
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Pop to CL65's 'Magazine weblinks' and scroll down to the Senior Service section and - voila! - you'll find several references to agencies that provide info and resources.
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Why not, for example, check out the work of Outlook Trust?

A remarkable leader

Today the Church of England has been celebrating Deaconess Isabella Gilmore.

She was, in every respect, as pioneering as her more famous brother William Morris.

Go to the CPAS Women in Leadership blog to learn more about her.

Marathon marvels

Hurrah for two fast-paced contributors to CL 66 (June 08) who completed yesterday's Flora London Marathon.

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CPAS Evangelism Adviser David Banbury ran a storming 3 hours and 56 minutes. Look out for his useful guide to choosing an inquirers' course for your church.

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Regular CL illustrator Brent Clark crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 50 minutes. Brent provides images for a new service for Remembrance Sunday.

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Brent was raisng funds for the wonderful work of Christ Church Spitalfileds Crypt Trust.

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David, who served last year in Iraq as a hospiital chaplain, ran for Royal British Legion.

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Neat that Brent's poppy image for CL 67 creates a link between these two amazing marathon men.

Birth of a blog!

The Rev Rosie Ward works for CPAS as a Leadership Development Adviser.

She's also the guiding hand behind a brand-new blog which, as its name hints, is of particular interest to women in leadership. But men are welcome to read and comment as well.

You can find out more about Rosie's work here.

Rosie's new book Growing Women Leaders will be published later this year (CPAS/BRF). More news soon....

A common cause

What's a picture of a WW2 Enigma encryption machine doing on the CL blog?

Yesterday's programme in Radio 4's series The Reunion was remarkable, moving and inspiring. Presenter Sue McGregor spoke to a group of people who had worked throughout the war at the top-secret establishment at Bletchley Park, with the single aim of breaking the hyper-complex German military codes.

They worked long shifts, against seemingly impossible odds, but united in a single common cause. And yet they also knew that their contribution (many agree that the breaking of Enigma shortened the War by as much as two years) would remain secret and therefore uncelebrated for many years.

I was particularly impressed by their account of the organization of personnel at Bletchley Park.

There was no conventional hierarchy, no division between officers and other ranks, no discrimination between men and women.

All were treated equally because all had to be equally dedicated to the supremely important challenge facing them.

One of the codebreakers spoke of a brief, morale-boosting visit from Prime Minister Churchill. All the BP workers gathered outside one of the many wooden huts in which they worked. Churchill scrambled up a bank of earth and simply thanked them for all that they were doing.

As he recounted this memory, the elderly gentleman's voice faltered....

The programme is fascinating, funny and challenging. It's available on Listen Again for another six days.

'All were treated equally because all had to be equally dedicated to the supremely important challenge facing them.'

Wow!

RUN for it!

With an energy befitting its name RUN (Reaching the Unchurched Network) resources churches for 'culturally relevant' outreach. And does so brilliantly.

Coming up in June of this year is their More than This conference, provocatively described as 'breaking the mould of mission'.

Loads of information here!

Philp Yancey

The remarkable Philip Yancey is one of the many people to be speaking at this summer's Greenbelt Festival.

Blinging

Few, if any, contemporary church leaders are more finely tuned in to today's culture than the incomparable Bishop Graham Cray.