Spirited Exchanges

Spirited Exchanges is coming to St Michael's.

Monday 2nd November, 7.45 for 8.00 pm at St Michael and All Angels, Amersham on the Hill.

Jenny McIntosh, co-founder of Spirited Exchanges will speak further about people leaving churches and why, and the experiences of people in this space and what might be helpful for them. Many have already left the church. Some have felt marginalised and misunderstood, others have felt controlled and disrespected. For most it has led to considerable upheaval in their faith understanding and practice and has often meant the loss of previously valued community. If you know of anyone who might like to come along please feel free to invite them.

Spirited Exchanges is a network offering support, encouragement and resources for people who are experiencing challenges to and/or the unravelling of their faith.

The Orthodox Heretic

Peter Rollins is a philosopher by profession, and founder and co-ordinator of IKON, an emergent church community in Belfast. In this book he explains by way of parables some of the ideas he has written about in his other books. He is much taken by paradox and many of the parables are paradoxical in nature. Not all of the parables stand up by themselves, but in the book they are all followed by an explanation (which does sadly undermine the power of parable). However, the parables and the following explanations provide serious food for thought about what it means to be a Christian and the nature of what belief is. He is clear that we are to think for ourselves (this was evidenced in a talk at Greenbelt where he said "I'm not sure that I believe some of what I'm saying") and in this book provides enough challenging parables to make us do just that. You may not agree with his answers, but thinking about what he is proposing will challenge what you do think and believe.

The Departed

Just watched "The Departed" and just looked up and found it won 4 Oscars. It was a good film, and yet I find myself in a weird place having watched it. It is all about moles and hardly anybody is what they seem to be - throughout the film they are all terrified of being exposed, and now, about an hour later, I find myself inexplicably in that paranoid place that they were in. Perhaps this is an example of the power of the movies.

I used to think that it didn't matter what we saw (although I have tended to steer clear of horror films), but after this experience I am more inclined to believe in the power they can have over us. Perhaps it is a case of it only being good films that we have to fear?