“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” – from an ancient Persian mass prayer
Farewell
July 7, 2012
From Peter Hardy, Chaplaincy Assistant:
As the academic year has ended I am leaving the Chaplaincy now to do new things elsewhere. Whether or not new material will be posted by others in the near future I’m very pleased to know that our resources will remain available here to you and others for many years to come. Thank you for reading and goodbye!
One of the key ways in which the Bible is actually is during church services, particularly with a sermon or homily. ‘Preaching’ can refer to both reciting scripture and to the exegesis on it. In denominations where preaching is seen as more important than the Eucharist preaching may take on a sacramental character. This means that it will typically be longer, more central to the service, and involve more personal discretion of the minister. Elsewhere, the big churches of Catholicism, Methodism, and Anglicanism share a liturgical devise called the Lectionary. This is a calendar of readings from the Bible which cycles every three years, each year based around a Synoptic Gospel– with John used on special occasions.
“The love of the humanity of Our Lord is the love of our neighbour. … Love of neighbour means voluntary poverty, stripping one’s self, …non-participation in those luxuries which have been manufactured by the exploitation of others. While our neighbours suffer, we must suffer with them.” – Dorothy Day
π Canon
July 4, 2012
I didn’t make this myself, although I wish I did.
From Peter Hardy, Chaplaincy Assistant:
After our Bible For Bluffers session on the Biblical Canon I was wondering to myself what happens if you skim through the Bible, focusing on verses corresponding to pi (that is, 3.14)? What would the Bible be like if we were limited to these passages? Read the rest of this entry »
Quote
June 30, 2012
“Shared joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half sorrow.” – Swedish proverb
Michael J. Bonnell © 1999
Let’s leap straight into some Bible verses: “[Jesus said] I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20a-21) “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20a) “[God] has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world”. (2 Peter 1:4) Read the rest of this entry »
“Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” – Charles Reade
Salvation As Liberation
June 19, 2012
In this session we focus on the first of the theories from the previous discussion which characterises our redemption through Christ in terms of liberation. At its core: Christ in his crucifixion identifies with us and shares our suffering; in his Resurrection Christ is victorious over all the powers that oppress us. The connotations this liberation has as a victory won by your leader in battle makes it rather different from moksha– an equivalent of salvation found in Indic religion which is usually translated as ‘liberation’, but means one’s individual release from the cycle of rebirth. Read the rest of this entry »
The University of Reading Chaplaincy 
Written
on July 7, 2012