Church History (part 1)
Well first week back after "reading week" and we razzed through the 1st 1500 years of church history. It was absolutely mind blowing. I confess I just kinda thought that after the persecutions at the start, the church got more corrupt when Constantine issued the edict of Milan and sponsored Christianity (with lots of money for churches and the like) and the whole pope thing took off. And yes there was that - but it was fabulous how in every generation there were Christians rising up and saying "this is wrong" and getting back to basics with refusing wealth and the trappings, serving the poor and the destitute and living the Gospel (eg St Francis, cistercians, "brethren of the common life", St Patrick, St Benedict, John Chrisostem, Augustine, St Anthony, etc). Fab!
Essays!
Well Friday was the hand-in of our "love ethic" essay (only 4am finish this time! let's say that the essay was within the word limit but the footnotes were rather large - some would say bigger than the essay itself...
) - where we were exploring Jesus' command to love your enemies and how
this has been the distinguishing feature of "true" Christianity from
the martyrs forgiving their enemies, to modern day examples in WWII, the
Rwandan genocide and South Africa. Just to get hold of how God loves
us - even when we were enemies of Him - and forgives us of so much - how
can we do anything but share the love He has shown (and given) us.
Sorry if I'm repeating myself - but it was so cool to get hold of this -
I am so much more forgiving of those who are cutting me up on my moped.
Bless 'em!Third Place group
This is our community service group - I am currently assigned to Tumbling Bay Retirement Home (not quite prisons yet...but I'm learning to submit!!) - guess I was a little disappointed and I really haven't ever engaged with the older generation (it's shocking I know! just always felt that I didn't have anything in common and so what would I say???) I have to say it's been a delight to serve them - they still have a wicked sense of humour and so I tease them mercilessly. We attended their quiz (and will be doing skittles with them next week)and were even able to answer some questions despite many being out of our generational knowledge...
Church Placement
All students get attached to a church where they will serve and I'm attached to my home church (on my own...
).
Being at my one church has pros and cons - the pros being that we can
develop our life as a family in the community, the cons being that we
might not get as many opportunities. However chatting with our pastor
we're going to be working on some kids work - specifically some praise
parties as sometimes the main church service can be a little dull for
those who want to run and jump (and for the children too ;) )Other stuff
Things are really changing round here as the group grows together - it's been a pleasure to see how people who started at totally different ends of the spectrum (including me) are loving each other - it's truly a beautiful thing to behold. Arguments which used to be about trying to prove your point was correct have just given way to learning from each others viewpoints and experiences. Mint!
Plenty of other things on the boil which I'll chat about in next week's blog.
PS Babies still doing OK - though Jen isn't - her SPD kciked in on friday last week...
No comments:
Post a Comment