![]() Please remember the first of our facilitated forums on moving forward together will be held tomorrow, Saturday the 21st of May in Barnies from 9am. They will be led by Alex Smith, who has professional expertise in facilitation and dialogue and are open to all parishioners of Nativity. Prayerfully consider attending this as an opportunity to be a part of Nativity moving forward as a church. Further information on the principles and values of these meetings is in the file attached (see below). ![]()
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Questions
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Today's thought from Walter Brueggemann It is the vocation of the baptized, the known and named and unafraid, to make the world whole:
Lord Jesus, may I be a vessel of God’s grace given by the work of your power. To you be glory in my life, in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (adapted from Ephesians 3: 7, 20) ![]()
Today's thought from NT Wright Paul wants all Christians to have their mind renewed, so that they can think in a different way. We all face many challenges... It won’t do simply to go into autopilot and hope to get through somehow. ... that requires careful and disciplined thought in this new mode, probably over some time. We have to be able to think about what to do – what to do with our whole lives, and what to do in the sudden crisis that faces us in this very minute. Being trained to think “Christianly” is the necessary antidote to what will otherwise happen: being, as Paul says, “squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.” Lord Jesus, may I be a vessel of God’s grace given by the work of your power. To you be glory in my life, in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (adapted from Ephesians 3: 7, 20) ![]()
Inspired by Desmond Tutu Ubuntu is a highly sought-after attribute meaning someone who is generous, magnanimous, hospitable, welcoming, affirming of others. It’s a Southern African word which could easily be applied to Nelson Mandela, who emerged from 27 years’ incarceration preaching forgiveness and reconciliation. Throughout the rest of his life, he exemplified graciousness, concern and caring. And it’s that care for others - that none of us can be totally selfsufficient - that points us back to the second creation story in Genesis when God declares that it’s not good that man should be alone. We are made for togetherness, created for a deliberate network of interdependence, of complementarity, of family - the human family, God’s family. It was Martin Luther King who said: ‘Unless we learn to live together as brothers and sisters, we will perish together as fools!’ Lord Jesus, may I be a vessel of God’s grace given by the work of your power. To you be glory in my life, in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (adapted from Ephesians 3: 7, 20) ![]()
Todays' thought from Nadia Bolz- WeberMy spirituality is most active when: I am confronted by the mercy of the gospel so much that I cannot hate my enemies, and when I am unable to judge the sin of someone else (which, let’s be honest, I love to do) because my own crap is too much in the way, and when I have to bear witness to another human being’s suffering despite my desire to be left alone, and when I am forgiven by someone even though I don’t deserve it and my forgiver does this because he, too, is trapped by the gospel, and when traumatic things happen in the world and I have nowhere to place them or make sense of them but what I do have is a group of people who gather with me every week, people who will mourn and pray with me, and when I end up changed by loving someone I’d never choose whom God sends my way to teach me about God’s love. Lord Jesus, may I be a vessel of God’s grace given by the work of your power. To you be glory in my life, in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (adapted from Ephesians 3: 7, 20) ![]()
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