Living in Hope , livre ebook

SPCK - Catherine Fox

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25 pages

English

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Description

Living in Hope is part of the highly popular series of open-minded York Courses for discussion groups and individual reflection, crammed with questions to stimulate thought and lively debate
Living in Hope is the York Course written for Advent 2021 by Catherine Fox.

In this enlightening and absorbing four-session ecumenical course, Catherine Fox explores living in hope and dying well.

As with previous Advent York Courses, the standard study book is supported by an in-depth interview, covering all 4 sessions between Catherine Fox and Simon Stanley, available on CD, as a Digital Download or as a transcript in either paperback or eBook.

Session 1: Living well
Session 2: Dying well
Session 3: Hell-bent on destruction?
Session 4: Going to heaven?

This York Course is available in the following formats
Course Book (Paperback 9781909107298)
Course Book (eBook 9781909107588)
Audio Book of Interview to support Living in Hope York Course (CD 9781909107434)
Audio Book of Interview (Digital Download 9781909107571)
Transcript of interview to support Living in Hope York Course (Paperback 9781909107304)
Transcript of interview (eBook 9781909107595)
Book Pack (9781909107411 Featuring Paperback Course Book, Audio Book on CD and Paperback Transcript of Interview)
Large print (9781909107601)

Sujets

Religion

Christianisme

Christian Living

Philosophie et théologie

Devotional

Devotion

Christianity

Informations

Publié par	SPCK
Date de parution	20 août 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781909107588
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

LIVING IN HOPE
An ecumenical course in 4 sessi ons for discussion groups
written by Catherine Fox
with accompanying audio and transcrip t
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS COURSE
SUGGESTIONS FOR GROUP LEADERS
We’re deliberately not prescriptive, and different leaders prefer to work in slightly different ways, but here are a few tried and trusted ideas …
1. THE ROOM Encourage people to sit within the main circle – so all feel equally involved.
2. HOSPITALITY Tea or coffee and biscuits on arrival and/or at the end of a meeting is always appreciated and encourages people to talk informally.
3. THE START If group members don’t know each other well, some kind of ‘icebreaker’ might be helpful. For example, you might invite people to share something about themselves and/or about their faith. Be careful to place a time limit on this exercise!
4. PREPARING THE GROUP Explain that there are no right or wrong answers, and that among friends it’s fine to say things that you’re not sure about – to express half-formed ideas. If individuals choose to say nothing, that’s all right too.
5. THE MATERIAL It helps if each group member has their own personal copy of this booklet. Encourage members to read each session before the meeting. There ’s no need to consider all the questions. A lively exchange of views is what matters, so be selective. The quotation boxes in the margins are there to stimulate discussion and – just like the opinions expressed by the audio participants - don’t necessarily represent York Courses’ views or beliefs.
6. PREPARATION It’s not compulsory for members of your group to have a Bible, but you will want one. Ask in advance if you want anyone to lead prayers or read aloud, so they can prepare.
7. TIMING Aim to start on time and stick fairly closely to your stated finishing time.
8. USING THE AUDIO The track markers on the audio (and shown in the Transcript) will help you find your way around the recorded material very easily. For each of the sessions we recommend reading through the session in the course booklet, before listening together to the corresponding session on the audio material. Groups may like to choose a question to discuss straight after they have listened to a relevant track on the audio – but there are no hard and fast rules. Do whatever works best for your group!
9. THE TRANSCRIPT is a written record of the audio material with track markers for each new question and is invaluable as you prepare. Group members also benefit from having their own copy.
RUNNING A VIRTUAL HOUSE GROUP
Various software programmes allow virtual group meetings. Zoom is very popular and many people already have the software installed. The Group Leader should ‘host’ the meeting (and so would logically control the audio element too - although this could be ‘farmed out’ to a confident volunteer).
SHARING AUDIO ON ZOOM
If you have the course CD:
Mute everyone else and play the CD as close to your computer microphone as possible.
If your computer has a CD player or you have the downloaded course audio on your computer:
At the bottom of the screen click on the ‘Share Screen’ icon, then at the top of the next screen click on ‘Advanced’, then click the option ‘Music or Computer Sound Only’. The first time you try to share audio you may be asked to ‘Install Zoom Audio Device’; follow the instructions to install. Play the audio track on your computer using your preferred media player and everyone will be able to hear it. To stop sharing audio, click ‘Stop Share’ at the top of the screen.
We suggest the Group Leader checks the audio set-up with a helpful friend before hosting their first virtual meeting.
Session One: Living well
This advent course is a chance to have a think about what it means to live well, and to die well. We are people of history and people of hope. We look back to the Bible to see where we’ve come from, and we look forward in hope to what lies ahead. But there are times when looking ahead is frightening. Even looking around can be a source of anxiety. The times seem dark, and the political situation unstable. The challenge of climate change looms larger each decade. What hope do we have? How can we live well in the face of current events?
Advent has traditionally been the season of hope and of preparation. We look back, as people of history, to Christ’s first coming. But we look forward too, as people of hope, to his second coming. Every time we repeat the creed we say that we believe ‘he will come again in glory, to judge both the living and the dead.’ Is judgement something to look forward to—or to dread? What happens when we die?
These are big themes to get our teeth into. Historically, they’ve been referred to as ‘The Four Last Things’ (Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell). But as we explore them in the light of Christ, we’ll begin to see that the last things are also the first things; that everything holds together in the one who is the alpha and omega, the first and the last. And - who knows? - we may find that the art of living well, and the art of dying well, are not that far apart at all.
Carpe Diem
Seize the day! Count your blessings! Don’t take things for granted! We all know this in theory, yet it remains stubbornly difficult to translate it into practice. You may have come across the story about a rabbi who asked: ‘What if there is only one question God puts to us when we die: “Did you enjoy my creation?”’ What would we answer? ‘No, I was far too busy with X, Y and Z.’ I bet we’d feel outraged that nobody told us this was the only question we’d be facing. It would feel as though we’d spent a lifetime swotting for some gruelling Final Exam, feverishly question-spotting and covering every base, only to turn the paper over and read the single line: ‘Did you enjoy the course?’ Well, if we’d known that, we wouldn’t have expended so much time and energy on trying to lead a good life, or to please God, or keep the church going!
What might it look like, for it to be enough simply to enjoy God’s creation? Lying in a silk hammock with a cocktail and a good book? A balloon trip over the Kalahari? All the dogs you’ve ever loved bounding up to greet you? A head-to-toe pampering massage? Rampant shame-free sex? Scaling Everest? A huge festival with all your favourite bands? A nice cream tea with an old friend? Lying out under the stars? I was once very taken aback when my hairdresser - not a churchgoer himself - told me he felt sorry for people who didn’t believe. ‘It’s a waste of God,’ was how he put it, ‘to go through their whole lives not enjoying him.’ What if enjoying God’s creation is really another way of talking about ‘Enjoying God’?
Enjoying God forever
The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647 begins with the question: ‘What is the chief end of man?’ The answer it gives is: ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.’ ‘End’ is such an interesting word. In this context, it means the chief ‘goal’ or ‘purpose’ of human beings is ‘to glorify God and to enjoy him forever’. But words shimmer with associations and their multiple other meanings. ‘I’m at my wits’ end.’ ‘End of story.’ ‘The End is Nigh.’ ‘Where will it all end?’ Maybe it won’t. To enjoy God forever - world without end.
Are we wasting God? Are we wasting the chance to enjoy God and God’s good creation? I think there’s a close link between glorifying God and enjoying God, and that link is reflection. ‘Reflection’ is another of those words that shimmers with layers of meaning. We can reflect on something, and things - mirrors and lakes - can reflect other things.
Reflection
Reflection - in the sense of reflecting on something - takes time. It’s not just a quick glance in the mirror to check you haven’t got toothpaste around your mouth. We say things like, ‘On reflection, I’ve decided I will go ahead after all.’ We mean we’ve thought long and hard before coming to a decision.
Once when I was on holiday in Lanzarote I visited a cave system, full of dramatic stalactites and stalagmites, pools and dripping rocks. Right at the end, the tour guide warned us to be careful, as we were approaching a very deep chasm. We all peered down. She invited a small boy to drop a stone in, so we would count the seconds before it hit the bottom. He tossed the pebble, and everyone leapt back with a shout of shock. For a moment, I couldn’t work out what had happened. The chasm had fragmented. Then we realised: it wasn’t a deep hole at all. It was a shallow pool reflecting a vast cave towering above us. Slowly, the ripples from the pebble subsided and the reflection emerged again. Huge heights reflected as vast depths in an inch of water. This consoles me. I often feel very shallow indeed.
Reflection takes time. Maybe that’s what prayer is? Simply sitting still long enough to be blessed. Sitting still and gazing, until the surface settles, until the glory of the image is reflected. But if we behold God’s glory - as in Paul’s words ‘as it were in a glass’ - then that opens the glorious question of whether that reflection is in fact us: women and men made in the image of God. The heart gives a glad cry of recognition. We recognise God, God recognises us. In Jesus, we are bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. How many years of patient waiting God puts into trying to catch our eye, to get our attention.
The 17th century poet and clergyman Thomas Traherne knew this, and expresses, in an ecstatic heaping up of imagery, how God seeks to ‘allure’ us.
Awake my Soul, and soar upon the Wing
Of Sacred Contemplation; for the King
Of Glory woos; he’s pleased to allure
Poor feeble Dust!…
Wooing the human race
For Traherne, everything in creation - flowers, moon, sun and stars, fish, animals, other humans, milk, honey, spices, gold, our bodies, sweet perfumes, w