Archive
Photography – The Life of Christ, Wintershall Estate, Surrey, UK
A photo record of the annual open-air passion play of the Life of Christ held at the Wintershall Estate near Guildford in Surrey.
‘More than a play, it’s an experience not to be missed’. Having now seen the 3-act play twice, I totally agree.
The play was written and adapted from the Bible by Peter Hutley, owner of the Wintershall Estate.
ACT 1 – The Nativity and Childhood of Jesus
ACT 2 – The Ministry of Jesus
ACT 3 – The Passion and Ascension of Christ
CWR has produced a DVD, ‘Jesus -The Wounded Healer’, suitable for Church study groups at Lent and shot on location at the Wintershall Estate, courtesy of Peter Hutley.
Christian Book trade – Good News Centre, Newent: a photo update
I visited Good News Centre Newent again this weekend. It’s always a pleasure to go there. It was looking even more splendid than usual and was really busy – important in the run-up to Christmas. The shop continues to defy all the normal location rules of retailing, situated as it is in rural Gloucestershire.
They have an excellent card and gift range including a really good range of Indian crafts, with which I was not familiar. It was especially good to see lots of books being sold. Good to see the Bookseller Association’s marketing campaign kit in use – ‘Celebrate Bookshops in Your Community – Keep Books on the High Street’.
I couldn’t resist taking this shot of the CWR Cover to Cover Bible Study spinner! Those of you who know me well know how much I love spinners in shops – something about a poacher and a gamekeeper, I think!
Here’s my mobile phone photo update and my earlier GNC post;
Review; Jeff Lucas Product Launch for New Christians and Seekers
Over 70 people gathered at the Science Museum in London on Wednesday 16 March to celebrate the launch of three new major publications authored by Jeff Lucas.
Having enjoyed a guided tour through the ‘Journey of Flight’ exhibition, representatives from the Christian media, book trade and major church denominations heard Jeff speak passionately of how these new resources for those seeking God, and for those new on their journey of faith came about. Here’s a taste of the evening;
These three CWR resources are:
| Life – The Journey for New Christians DVD | ||||
Successfully navigate the daily journey of the Christian life, for new Christians
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These resources are available from your local Christian bookshop, from CWR or from www.eden.co.uk
Review; Jesus – The Wounded Healer DVD
Lent starts this week.
I don’t usually push CWR products on this blog but I’m making an exception for this really good DVD. OK – so I’m biased!
Filmed on the Wintershall Estate in Surrey – home of the outstanding ‘Life of Christ’ annual outdoor production – it’s presented by my friend and colleague, Mick Brooks and based on material written by Selwyn Hughes, the founder of CWR.
‘Jesus’ ability to heal our wounds flows from the fact that He Himself experienced our wounds. The God we see in Jesus did not study our sufferings from a distance in a cold and detached way, but wrapped Himself in our flesh and felt what we feel. These insightful sessions will increase your awareness that Jesus is committed to us and can relieve and support us through the pain we experience in life, giving us hope and strength to face whatever comes our way. You will also see afresh that God can turn what is meant for evil into good’.
The DVD contains five 15-minute (approx) sessions entitled:
- Jesus: His Wounds Answer Our Wounds
- Jesus: ‘Why Have You Forsaken Me?’
- Jesus: Misunderstood and Criticised
- Jesus: Living through Loss and Grief
- Jesus: Resurrection Hope.
It’s suitable for small-group or individual use and has subtitles for the hearing impaired.
Available from your local Christian Bookshop, from CWR or online at www.eden.co.uk
Opinion – Food Prices and the Micah Challenge
Last evening I attended the CWR Intercessory Prayer Evening in conjunction with Revd Joel Edwards from the Micah Challenge. I found that I couldn’t get past his first statistic and had difficulty in concentrating on the prayers due to the impact of this appalling statement: ‘As a result of recent increases in world food prices and the impact of the food futures market, potatoes in Ethiopia (a staple food) have shot up from 7p to 40p per kilo’.
I started to think about food. Imagine if that’s what you or I were paying, but in Pounds Sterling. Can you work out how you’d manage such a huge uplift in your food bill if potatoes went from £7 to £40 per bag? I couldn’t – and the thought stayed with me well into the evening. Throughout today the statistic has troubled me.
Last evening’s event at Waverley Abbey House was part of the Micah Challenge 10-10-10 Global Initiative to ‘hold Governments to account for their promise (in 2000) to halve the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty by 2015’. The Micah Challenge takes its name from the Old Testament prophet and his well known exhortation in Micah 6:8 – ‘And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’
Over the past 24 hours, I have revaluated my idea of being thankful for the food that I eat. I was brought up to say grace before every meal. But in all honesty, this has simply become a meaningless repetition. I admit that I take the availability of food for granted. I expect to be able to eat. Food is all around us. Am I thankful? Probably not. How do I know that? Because my attitude mostly says otherwise.
This morning, for the first time in a very long time, I was truly thankful for my breakfast cereal – and I told God so!
The media inform us that bread and cereal prices are on the way up after various disasters around the world have forced shortages on the world market. Will we in the UK suffer? I doubt it. Certainly not on the scale of communities elsewhere who do not have the ‘benefit’ of our western economic ‘buffers’ which largely protect us from the wildest swings in price. Not so in the developing world. Food pricing is a daily ‘life and death’ issue. Make no mistake, food pricing is both a political and a spiritual issue.
I’m horrified to read of the high levels of food waste here in the UK. Apparently, everyday we throw staggering amounts of food away in this country (an estimated 8.3m tonnes per year). This is wrong and it’s probably also ‘sinful’ (to use theological language) to misuse scarce resources in this way. Literally millions of children go to sleep each night without having had anything to eat. It’s time to do something.
On Sunday, 10th October 2010 (10/10/10), Christians around the world are invited to join up to 100 million people via the Micah Challenge to pray, act and give a voice to the global poor. For more details go to www.micahchallenge.org
You can read my earlier blog post here on a similar theme: http://eddieolliffe.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/opinion-bank-lending-a-basic-unfairness/.
For a copy of Joel Edwards book, Just Mercy (CWR) linked to the Micah Challenge, visit your local Christian bookshop or go online at http://www.cwr.org.uk/store/p-864-just-mercy.aspx
Book Trade: CWR Annual Review 2009
The CWR Annual Review for 2009 has been published. This is a public document as required by the Charity Commission (UK).
You can access the full text at www.cwr.org.uk/about/fr
The Annual Review covers the Publishing and Training activities of the Charity plus Financials and the Plans for the Future. Despite the recent economic downturn, the CWR Ministry is in good shape and has much for which to be thankful.
One important update is that we have just gained University validation for the Counselling courses. CWR will be offering a BA in Counselling via Roehampton University with effect from November 2011. We continue to explore ways of developing our facilities on the Waverley Abbey site and the process of expanding the work via the new CWR Asia entity in Singapore continues.
Book Trade – LCF Annual Conference 2010, London WC1
The Librarians’ Christian Fellowship (LCF) 2010 Conference takes place in London on Saturday 24th April 2010 (from 10.30 – 16.45). The theme is “Of Making Of Books There Is No End”.
The morning speaker is actor, author and broadcaster Tony Jasper on “Author Minefield: Publisher Wants, People Wants, Librarian Wants” and, in the afternoon, Eddie Olliffe, who works for the publisher CWR, on “UK Christian Retailing, Albatross, Dodo or Jewel“.
The venue is the Chancellors Room, Hughes Parry Hall, 19 – 26, Cartwright Gardens, London WC1H 9EF and attendance is not restricted to Librarians or members of the LCF.
Further details from – secretary@librarianscf.org.uk
Review – Waverley Abbey Insight Series; CWR
This is not really a review, more a bit of PR! However, this really is a great series and is already building into the classic Pastoral Care and Counselling library.
The Waverley Abbey Insight series is based on the popular one day seminars held by CWR at Waverley Abbey House, near Farnham in Surrey. These hardback titles cover many of the key issues that so many people struggle with on an every day basis.
Insight topics covered so far include – Stress, Bereavement, Self-Esteem, Eating Disorders, Anxiety, Anger, Addictions, Perfectionism, Forgiveness, Depression and Assertiveness.
Insight into Dementia will be added to this list in July.
For more details log onto www.cwr.org.uk/store or visit your local Christian bookshop.
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