iGod

Happy Easter!

Christ has died!
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Amen

Whatever you are doing this Easter have fun.

ASD

"Before All Things" - A Song for Easter

Dan Wilt has posted an Easter hymn on his blog, based on Colossians 1:15-20. He has also kindly included words and chords too.

Apart from a Sunday gathering I can also see this song working really well in a small group. It is a great meditative song and full of wonderful truths. Take time to watch it if you can.

ASD

Cadbury's changes its brand image and goes Fairtrade

It was interesting to read this week that good old Cadbury's has undergone something of a revolution by aiming to go totally Fairtrade by Autumn of this year. Not only that but they have bought into social network marketing by stepping into the blogosphere to get their message out. However, I am not sure it works for them. If they had a tribe, as Seth Godin, sees it, maybe this would be a cool tool, but they lack a following, unlike Green & Black.

Now I know that I risk being branded cruel talking about chocolate when I am aware that people have given up the cocoa bean for Lent, but I thought you should know all the same. Sorry.

ASD

A great first Sunday Service

What a fab time we had on Easter Sunday at our first service as a fledgling church plant. Made even more memorable by the snow. Wasn't sure if if I should start by wishing people Happy Christmas or Easter. Great to see you there. 

If you missed it, sorry.  Our next Sunday service is on 27 April, same place, Sudbury Town Hall at 10.30 am.  Fresh coffee and doughnuts served 10.15 am onwards. You can also keep up to date with news on our church website and sign up to our SMS weekly text service there too.

ASD

People know more about Easter than we think

There was a great little straw poll survey carried out for last weekend's Sunday Times newspaper.  A journalist took to the streets in the provinces and asked people some basic questions about what Easter was all about, as well as testing their Bible knowledge.

"Certainly our Sunday school-type quiz did not faze most people. After a moment’s furrowed brow, a dredging down to older sedimentary layers of memory, almost everybody, regardless of age or gender, knew what happened on Good Friday and Easter Day: at least 90% in both cases. Even with the more difficult questions, such as “Who was Caiaphas?”, two or three people out of every 10 got the answers right."

"One of the strangest and most fascinating results in the survey was finding a question, and not an obvious question either, which almost everybody got right instantly. “Who first arrived at Jesus’s tomb on the morning of Easter Sunday to find it empty?” Mary Magdalene came back the answer time after time. Young and old, male and female, believers and atheists – why on earth should this be?"

The interesting, if not surprising, thing was that nobody seemed to be embarrassed in talking about it either. Maybe, then, it's just Christians who do, who knows?

ASD

Good Friday - 'The Narrow Way'

A powerful image by David Hayward that has affected me deeply this week.
ASD

‘Happy’ Easter!

In a timely reminder that Easter Sunday is just around the corner, I thought the findings of a new survey quite interesting.

New research suggests that a belief in God could lead to a more contented life.

Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference.

Even though churchgoers were unsurprisingly more likely to oppose divorce, they were both less psychologically affected by marital separation when it did happen, he said.

"What we found was that religious people were experiencing current day rewards, rather than storing them up for the future."

However, he said that the nature of the surveys used meant that undetected factors, perhaps in the lifestyle or upbringing of religious people, such as stable family life and relationships, could be the cause of this increased satisfaction.

The precise contribution of religion to mental health remains controversial, although there is other evidence that it does directly improve happiness, said Professor Leslie Francis, from the University of Warwick.

He said that the benefit might stem from the increased "purpose of life" felt by believers.

I guess any closed critic would want to dismiss this survey in a instant, but it would be folly, if not a little ‘fundamentalist’ in outlook.

Maybe, just maybe the Easter story is more than just a story that happened 2,000 years ago and 2,000 miles away. Maybe it is time to find out more.

ASD

 

BBC series on The Passion this Easter

I have been a bit slow of the mark bringing you news of this, but Easter sees a major new BBC One drama tell the story of the final week in the life of Jesus. The Passion will be broadcast over several episodes during Holy Week (16-23 March). It follows Jesus as he is arrested and tried, crucified and buried, concluding with the resurrection appearances.

The drama is lined up for several half hour episodes in prime time slots in the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It boasts a strong leading cast. Joseph Mawle (Clapham Junction) will be playing the role of Jesus with support from James Nesbitt, Penelope Wilton and David Oyelowo. The programme has been produced by Nigel Stafford-Clarke who was at the helm for the BBC’s excellent version of Bleak House.

The newly revamped website Rejesus will be covering this film in some detail, and the beginnings of their new module on it are up already. New material will be being added over the next few weeks so that anyone with questions about the TV series, and about the final week of Jesus’ life can access reliable information and creative resources.

ASD