Edit, Sunday: Actually, we’re at The Warehouse. The weather isn’t looking the best.
Previous announcement read:
This Sunday there’ll be no 5pm meeting — Instead, we’ll be at Bronte Beach in the morning. Rhett writes:
No ‘normal’ Imagine this week! Instead, find us at Bronte Beach, 10.30am – 1pm ish Bring brunch types food and your best Warriors chant!
If it’s raining, we’ll announce a drier venue here, on Facebook and Twitter as well as through the email newsletter — see the sidebar to subscribe to these if you haven’t yet.
If cycling down, meet at Taylor Square at 10:00 AM (phone Nigel or Davina to meet up on the way, e.g. at Bondi Junction).
We’re covering Colossians over the next month or two at Imagine. We kicked this off on Sunday night with an introduction to the letter and to the city of Colossae in the first century.
There’ll be no Imagine meeting at the usual Sunday 5pm time this weekend. We’re off to the Hunter Valley for a weekend away. Though check out the shiny newsletter (5.3 MB download)…
This weekend, 5pm Sunday 26th, we’ll have Khun Poo with us courtesy of Urban Neighbours of Hope. She runs the Helping Hands Thai cooking school in a poor area of Bangkok, and has launched a cookbook. The morning after she visits us, she’ll be appearing on Sunrise (a TV program on Channel 7). The food should be amazing so RSVP to book in and come ready to eat.
Thanks to all of those who have already responded and are inviting people along! It looks like a great night as we cook in groups and taste some amazing Thai food. There will also be a cookbook for sale with all of Poo’s recipes in it on the night too, also called ‘Cooking with Poo’ and Poo will also be telling us a little bit of her story working in Bangkok. So come along and join us!
Our artists night this Sunday will be in support of HopeStreet’s work with the homeless in our local area.
Date: Sunday, May 1st
Time: 7:30pm
Address: Sticky Bar, 182 Campbell St Surry Hills
Tickets $20 online or at the door
We’ll have our usual roster of class acts, but a special focus –
“HopeMonth” is striving to bring the issue of homelessness to our attention. 105,000 people are homeless in Australia, 56% are women and children, many residing in inner city Sydney. By sharing a meal with your friends you can make a difference to these fellow Australians.
HopeStreet – Urban Compassion already provides programs that are successful. They need our support to ensure they can offer their services to ALL those in need. Remember, anyone can become homeless so let’s ensure there is an opportunity for anyone to gain access to this service.
On Sunday night we discussed the idea of “Pathways” in Christian Spirituality. Most simply, this is the idea that there is no one Christian spirituality for everyone, but everyone’s unique temperaments and abilities are realized in different ways. Beyond a common core of experience, not everyone grows, experiences God, or finds fulfillment in the same manner.
(Click to enlarge)
As a church we should aim to realize all Christian potentials. We’re not suggesting that any person is excluded from the common responsibilities of each area: we all have to about God, whether or not we think we’re ‘Intellectual’; we all have to help people whether or not that’s our main thing. But we do want to invite everyone to explore and develop their life to the fullest by trying what challenges them and doesn’t come naturally.
Activist – Mission, Justice, Opportunity, Aid + Development
This may not be the full spectrum, or the best way of organizing it. But hopefully it illustrates the range of experience that we want to foster in our community.
This weekend (4th-5th March) we’re running a short forum on homosexuality and ministry, with an emphasis on listening to the experiences of others. It’s personal and pastoral in emphasis.
Friday 7:30pm, OASIS Centre — A long-term lesbian couple will share their experience of church; Pastor Graham Long of the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross will speak about homosexuality and inner city ministry; this will be followed by a panel discussion.
Saturday 9am, OASIS Centre — We’ll be hearing the experience of a young gay man in life and (formerly) in Christian ministry; Major Paul Moulds of the Salvation Army will speak about homosexuality in inner city ministry; and there will be a panel discussion.
There will be other things happening each day, and attendees are encouraged to get out and see the inner city community in the lead-up to Mardi Gras.
RSVP to zack@imagine.org.au — Attendance will be $55 dollars for both days — contact us if you would like to come but this is a problem.
The Salvation Army OASIS Centre is located at 365 Crown St Surry Hills, between Foveaux and Fitzroy streets, and opposite the Dolphin Hotel.
The next Saturday morning reading group will be on Sat 12 March at 10:30 am. There was so much in the Dorothy Sayers article that we’re still going on that. I was asked to post a few extra discussion questions from last time…
[1] Should Christianity be a regulating principle for society, responsible shepherding, an outside critique, a liberation from within — or something else? (we applied this specifically to some of the current ‘Christian activism’ surrounding Mardi Gras); [2] Is _your_ Christianity a religion (as the term is generally used)? [3] Is Christianity, in every respect that it is real and interesting, theology? [4] Where does Christianity fall on the spectrum between simple, idealistic aspiration, and complex, hard-nosed realism? [5] Sayers writes that the common person “simply does not grasp _at all_ the idea that Jesus Christ and God the Creator are held to be literally the same person” and “labours under a delusion that for the Christian matter is evil and the body is evil”; Is this your experience? [6] David Cullen: “Barbarism is not behind us, it is beneath us” — How should Christianity facilitate progress? [7] Should society provide that work is to be meaningful, and protect the right to work excellently and with pride, even when this conflicts with the financial interests of employers? [8] Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about human nature? Does technological optimism necessarily discard those who fail? Is pessimism a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Note that this meeting has moved from the 5th because Imagine’s sexuality forum on Friday and Saturday. We’ll be meeting in a cafe in Darlinghurst as usual; contact nigel@imagine.org.au for more info, to obtain the PDF of the reading (it’s still just within copyright, so I won’t publish it on the website), or to join the email list for notices. Thanks, — Nigel
Tonight! 30 Jan at 6:30pm. Get along to the Creative Collective and catch the best of our artists from last year. The $15 cover charge will be donated to the Queensland Flood Appeal.
Next Sunday! 06 Feb at 5:30pm. IMAGINE INTRO. Come along for dinner and find out what’s happening this year. There’s big news on most of the plans that we discussed toward the end of last year.
Bring brunch types food and your best Warriors chant!
