Comment and resources for church leaders at all levels.
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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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....
