Route 66

Alert to to all Church Leadership subscribers. CL66 is being mailed out today and should be plunking onto your doormats in the first half of next week.

Contents include:

• brand-new service outlines for Harvest and Remembrance
• choosing an inquirers' course
• new book s for leaders
• pioneer ministry
• prayer stations
• book reviews
• and much more!

And, of course, there's plenty of extra material on the website.

Café Scientifique

Ever feel a wee bit 'challenged' when people start discussing human embryology / the genome project / GM crops - and so on?

Join the club! But thanks to the nationwide Café Scientifique network you may be nearer than you think to an enjoyable, inexpensive way of getting up to date on some of the key science/technolgy issues of our fast-changing world.

As the publicity says: 'Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.

'Cafe Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues, not a shopwindow for science. We are committed to promoting public engagementwith science and to making science accountable. '

Check out the website. And maybe think about turning up. And, hey, you may be in a postion to throw in a few worthwhile words from a faith perspective.

The trinitarian theology of the Jaffa Cake

Stumped for a missionary metaphor for the Trinity, St Patrick (according to legend) reached for a three-leafed shamrock. Perhaps today he'd have grabbed a passing Jaffa Cake....

Thanks to CL subscriber the Rev Ian Kennedy for the following suggestion for a short all-age talk for Trinity Sunday. 

(You don't need us to tell you that the talk will go down best if your listeners have access to the full, embodied reality of the Jaffa Cake experience.)

A Jaffa Cake is made of biscuit, jam and chocolate.

If one part is missing, it is not a Jaffa Cake.

• Biscuit missing, you have orange chocolate.
  
• Jam missing, you have a chocolate biscuit.
  
• Chocolate missing, you have a jam tart.
  

Same with the Trinity, all three persons need to be there for God to be the Trinity.

• God the Father covers all creation with his sovereign love and power.
  
• Jesus, like the biscuit base, shared our human life, basing himself on earth, God with us, for thirty-three years.
  
• The Holy Spirit, like the jam, expresses the dynamic relationship between Father and Son, and fills us with energy and power to live as Christ's body on earth.
  

If that's too hard to contemplate, just enjoy the Jaffa Cake.

Threedom

Trinity Sunday approaches, bringing the opportunity once again to contemplate the mystery at the heart of our faith.

Our Celtic ancestors seem to have taken every opportunity to celebrate the Trinity, as in this ancient image pictured above. No worries for them about the 'difficulty' of the concept!

There are two service outines for Trinity Sunday on the website.

How will you be celebrating?

Send us an idea - or three!

Seven ways to change the world

Jim Wallis is a minister, a political activist and a remarkably influential Christian leader.

Probably best known as leader of the peace and justice movement Sojourners, US-based Wallis is in the UK to promote his new book Seven Ways to Change the World.

Jim Wallis will be speaking about his book at the London Institue for Contemporary Christianity on Thursday 29 May.

Click here for more information.

Harvest resource

CL66 appears in June featuring a plethora of new resources, including an all-age Harvest service.

This time last year we featured a Harvest resource from the development charity Harvest Help.

We're pleased to direct you to their new resources for Harvest 2008.

Please note that Harvest Help is being re-named Self Help Africa.

Message just in...
To order this year’s harvest pack e-mail harvest@selfhelpafrica.com , ring the fundraising team on 01952 260699 stating the contact name and address of church or fill in and send back the slip on the attachment to: Self Help Africa UK office, 3-4 Old Bakery Row, Wellington, Telford, Shropshire TF1 1PS.

Men only?

Missed opportunity?

What a pity the well-meaning sponsors of this advertisement in the London Underground didn't choose a different translation.

For example, Today's New International Version:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

Spot the difference?

Any comments on the use of 'inclusive language' Bible translations.

Glorious now behold him arise...

A glimpse of Birmingham Cathedral's amazing Ascension window to celebrate this year's Ascension Day.

In many parts of Europe today has been a public holiday. But how many people in Britain - both 'churched' and 'unchurched' - would know that today brought one of the major celebrations of the church calendar?

How did you mark Ascension Day in your church? Or perhaps you didn't mark it at all?

In fact, does Ascension Day matter in 2008?

Is it one of those quaint customs that's set to become a sort of churchy museum piece?

Or is it a vibrant opportunity for celebrating a profound truth about the work and identity of Jesus, the Good News?

So, Ascension Day:

• should we delight in it and 'do' it"
• or definitely dump it?

Any opinions?

Photo credit: Webrarian of Plymouth