Thank you and Let’s Talk
The SRE Appeal is done and I am so very thankful to God and to you for your generosity towards this special appeal. We were hoping to raise $100,000 and thanks to your commitment we have raised more than $140,000. Amazing.
More than that, I also put out a call for new SRE teachers and 6 people have put up their hand to say that they are keen to join the team and be a part of this work. Praise God.
SRE provides a context in which students can think hard about themselves, their world and their God; it provides space to question the relentless drive toward subjectivity and inner authority and ask whether there is something (or someone) who provides meaning to it all. SRE gives students a safe place to explore and discover the Bible alongside our well equipped SRE teachers who support and guide them on their path of faith. And your generosity is ensuring this work continues.
And I can tell you that our teachers and the students are very thankful for your support. Thank you!
Now, Let’s talk about Life and Death.
We want to be a church that takes on the big issues unashamedly but also carefully and pastorally so this July we are going to talk through Life & Death. The purpose of these Let’s Talk events is to bring us together to talk about all the Bible has to say on important topics that shape our lives - not just from a theological perspective but from a compassionate human perspective as well.
The bookends of life are wildly significant nodal events but they are not events we experience in a way that enables us to reflect on them. We can however reflect on and talk about Life and Death from God’s point of view. As we open the Bible there is much to read about birth, life, death and the human experience. So let’s talk about it.
Over three Sundays and a midweek seminar we are going to explore what God says about who we are as people, where we come from, where we are going and how we get there.
Our midweek event will be on Wednesday 17th July from 7pm-9.30pm and will include a talk from Dr Andrew Errington exploring “How to Think Ethically” and then a series of workshops:
Dr Susan Beattie will be leading a session titled:
A Time to Be Born (Understanding Contraception)
Professor Melanie Lovell will be leading a session titled:
A Time to Die (Understanding Voluntary Assisted Dying)
Sally Sims will be leading a session titled:
A Time to Mourn (Understanding human grief)
All these issues sit in a complex and vitally important space that we are going to walk into this July. And we actually want to talk about these topics so at each of our services you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Download Slido onto your device or be ready to jump on slido.com during the service and Let’s Talk!
See you Sunday.
