Nourishing Faith: Food for the Journey
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Gospel Conversations
This week's Gospel Conversation: 27 April 2025, John 20: 19-31
These resurrection appearance stories are familiar to most of us, and few are more appealing than this one. Thomas, courageously questioning; Jesus bringing peace to a place of fear; the link to those of us who have not seen and yet believe - there is so much to think about! Rebecca Dudley joins us for the first time, providing some background to the story which Mannie, Anne and Michael join her to discuss.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CONVERSATION
Last week's Gospel Conversation: Easter Day 20 April 2025, Luke 24:1-12
Christ is Risen! We realise some of you will be watching this in order to prepare for a Sunday sermon, but if not, this is one of those weeks where we do recommend you wait until Sunday to watch it. We don't want to anticipate Easter Sunday before we go through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday: they involve their own work and meditation. But once you get to Sunday, be ready to celebrate and join Damon, Esther, Wendy and Michael as they do so!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CONVERSATION
Gospel Conversation series on our website
For 2024 Conversations, click here.
Everyday Life - Coldplay
This video of the song "Everyday Life" (from the band Coldplay) premiered on 10 December 2019. It has a profound sense of place, humanity and prayer captured in a "secular" song. In a world becoming more polarized, this asks us to see others as siblings, not enemies. Enjoy!
To see more about this video, including a transcript, click here.
Miriam's Sister, Deborah's Daughters - a short course from the Scottish Episcopal Institute.
This course for Lent (but worth looking at beyond this) is led by the Rev Liz Crumlish, Priest-in-Charge at St Oswald’s, Maybole, just out of Glasgow. It is made up of six short video’s with questions for reflection or discussion.
The videos consider how different times demand different kinds of leadership, involving imagination and creativity – gifts and qualities exhibited by numerous women in scripture. It reflects on the experiences of various women including Miriam, Deborah, Esther, Ruth, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany and the woman at the well, and finds inspiration and guidance for today in their practices of accompaniment, accountability, spirituality, communal discernment, provision and creativity. Drawing further on insights from feminist theology, and extensively tried and tested in contexts of parish ministry, health care chaplaincy, pioneering and renewal, Rev Liz offers realistic, sustaining and encouraging insights for church leaders.
You may need to "tune in" to understand a less familiar accent... but worth the effort!
Faith Communities Videos
See our website for the latest videos
Opportunities in 2025
Look to the Deepening Faith page for updates on conferences and courses available in 2025.
Resources from Elsewhere...
Pray the News with Anglican Missions
In a world filled with constant news, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the overwhelming negativity, conflict and need around us. Within those headlines is a powerful place to pray.
Pray the News is a weekly blog published by Anglican Missions to enrich the intercessory prayer life of the church as we pray into the biggest social, cultural and geopolitical headlines facing the world.
We believe that prayer makes a difference and is an active engagement with the heart of God. Sign up to receive updates every Thursday on issues that we can pray into - together.
This is Good News
Produced in the Diocese of Waiapu
The word “gospel” means “good news.” That’s the story we’re invited to live inside and to be carriers of: the good news of God, of Jesus, the good news of the Church. We are gospel people, we’re the people of good news! We’re called to share these messages with our whānau, friends and neighbours, and with the world all around us – but first we need to see it for ourselves.
Six studies, for the six weeks of Lent, each engaging with some aspect of the good news story that we, as Christians, are part of. Woven into this are some themes that are part of the vision for the Diocese of Waiapu – flourishing, discipleship, connection, vocation, koru ministry, and whakapapa.
Access the study HERE
The Bible Project
Are you familiar with 'The Bible Project'? The Bible Project help people experience the Bible in a way that is approachable and transformative, primarily through animated video bible studies. They combine beautiful illustration and robust theology into a wonderful resource that connects across generations.
Our lectionary is taking us through the Gospel of Mark right now. The Bible Project has a great video that gives an overview of the structure and purpose of Mark. Check it out here.
The Story of Anglicanism
Bishop Philip Richardson (Waikato-Taranaki) has given access to videos that are being shared in their Diocesan Lay Ministry sessions. You can watch Episode 1 by clicking the link above. Episodes two and three can be found on the Waikato-Taranaki diocesan website: Ministry Resources - Waikato Taranaki Anglicans, with links under the heading “The Story of Anglicanism”.
If you’ve been looking for something to use which isn’t Alpha but is aimed at the same sort of audience as Alpha, have a look at 321. It’s a new study series, made by an Australian Anglican priest in London who is making quite a splash as a speaker at the moment: Glen Scrivener. The course takes us through a basic introduction to Christianity in a way that encourages us to question and think, and always come back to Jesus. Best of all, it’s free! Click HERE to go to the website.
Deepening Faith: Children's Spirituality
There is another new course up in the brilliant resource"Discipleship Pathways."
This new, short, free, online course looks at the spirituality of children, and would be helpful for many of us! Whether you are wanting help in understanding your own children or grandchildren, or being ready for when children pop into church, or running a children's programme, it would be worth having a look at this.
There are also courses available on Intergenerational Communities, Preaching on Purpose, Baptism Unpacked, Children and Family Theology and many others. Check them out HERE.
The Deepening Faith webpage has a whole range of resources. Note that Anne Gover has recently gifted her huge range of study notes to anyone who will find them useful. These are simple-to-use, informative and engaging studies which cover biblical characters, books, baptism and a host of other topics. If you are part of a small group (or would like to start one) these will make your preparation easy! Find them in a dropbox folder HERE.
About Nourishing Faith Videos and Podcasts
We have a webpage for our video and other resources but we will also keep this article updated each fortnight with the latest resources that we would like to share with you. We also have a Nourishing Faith mailing list that sends an update of this article to you every week.
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If you have any resource you think is worth sharing more widely, contact Anne van Gend, John Graveston or Andrew Metcalfe so we can share them in this space.
