St Pauls Church in Auckland, NZ have a great history of releasing innovative videos to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This example is actually from a year or two ago but would be terrific to show at a crib or children's service this Christmas.
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Want to help people understand Anglican Christianity?
Launched now at www.formedfaith.org is the new Exploring Anglican Identity material.
Archbishop Phillip is the star of five short videos, each dealing with a different aspect of Anglican identity. Each video has discussion questions aimed at provoking conversation, whether you use them at a confirmation class, a bible study/other small group or even play one a week at morning tea after church. Archbishop Phillip has summed up nuanced ideas concisely and with humour.
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Growing Disciples 21C
If you are interested in having a stroll through the ideas of someone who has been working in the field of faith formation for a long time, and who has significant runs on the board of encouraging people towards discipleship then the blog of UCA Education specialist Craig Mitchell is a great place to start.
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First Communion for Children with Special Needs
Sue Hinderlider is a Pastoral Associate and Christian educator at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Johnson City, TN and in this article she shares a wealth of experience in the field of ministering with young people with special needs.
Read MoreArchbishop Phillip explores Anglican Identity and Ethos
After much discussion about how good the Archbishop’s address to Synod was this year, here’s the terrific section on Anglican identity, shared again with the PAX group at St Thomas’ Toowong a few weeks ago.
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of the Anglican Church, have a look!
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COMING SOON – Big BIBLE360 news
You’ve already heard about the new modules in the BIBLE360 series coming your way. That’s Introduction to the Prophets and Exploring Anglican Spiritualities, in case you missed that news. Both of those are dynamite and manage to combine learning and personal faith growth material too.
But on the way is some big news about the expanded “360” family of learning experiences for your parishes.
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How do others view your church?
In the journey of being faithful Anglican communities, objectivity is sometimes hard to come by. It's easy to get so into the groove of doing what we do that getting an outsider's point of view can be helpful. How welcoming are we? What is it like for a new person to walk in our doors?
Read MoreChildren's Church - Yay or Nay?
How we construct our worship so that it enables people to interact with God and God's story is a vexed question these days. Is it better to worship with all ages together? Is it better to arrange for separate educational activities for the young which match the purpose of the sermon for adults, but in another location? Or are the arguments for such bi-locational worship more about expediency for the adults left behind?
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Answering the tough questions
Question and answer sessions are an essential part of any state school Religious Education teachers methodology. They tend to allow us get to the point. The itch gets scratched!
With Episcopalian Questions, Episcopalian Answers, Ian Markham (Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary) has written a slim volume that does just that. He provides brief answers that manage to
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Explaining the Eucharist
Since the Eucharist is so central to what we do as Christians, it stands to reason that people in our pews should have a good understanding of what is going on as they participate, right?
This 24 page booklet aims to enable that good understanding.
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