Category Archives: Resources

St Mark’s is committed to producing resources reflecting the ethos and outlook of the church.

This is quite a challenge and one exercising those responsible for learning and faith development as well as for preparing services and selecting hymns.

Although work in progress, we have produced a number of documents that begin to outline an alternative approach to Christian faith – one that is rooted in the vision and vocation of Jesus whilst embracing insights and learning assimilated through the centuries.

Also, services at St Mark’s increasingly include locally-crafted texts within the structure of Anglican liturgy or ones that are conceived from scratch.

The upshot of this is a growing body of material that may be of interest to other people and church communities. Some of these resources can be accessed here and may be used without copyright infringement. All that we ask is that sources are acknowledged.

Before ‘Big Bang’

THE SCHOLARLY SEARCH for Jesus of Nazareth can be likened to a cosmologist’s quest for the origins of the universe. Billions of years ago, an high-temperature explosion of super-dense matter occurred, the so-called ‘Big Bang’, giving rise to all that exists. The enormity of this split-second wonder makes investigation into its causes (if, indeed, there are any) extremely difficult. What is more, those clues to date, black holes and the like, suggest a radically different order of things. Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: An Invitation

FROM THE BEGINNING, Christianity was known as ‘The Way’ and for good reason.  Jesus, the founder, summoned people to follow him and to share his vocation. Before long, this initial invitation found expression through an increasingly sophisticated set of beliefs … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Embodying Forgiveness

HOW SHALL WE describe the Christian Way? We are, each of us, apprentices of a master craftsman. A pattern of life entrusted to us through baptism. Like any apprentice, we need a mentor; and it is to Jesus of Nazareth … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Inhabiting (the) Prayer

 Our Father, who is in heaven, let your name be made holy, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, as in heaven so also on earth. Give us this day the bread of Life. And release us from … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Embracing Wisdom

THEOLOGY as a discipline is not a Christian innovation.  We know that there were Jewish theologians in first century Palestine, principally exegetes of Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy).  And although the body of rabbinic interpretative literature we possess comes from the … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Living Hospitably

ONE OF the functions of a religion is to facilitate access to sacred things: the sacred within ourselves, the sacred within the world around us and the sacred beyond all creating.  Such a task is not without risk and for … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Loving Creatively

ON ONE OCCASION, Jesus was asked which he considered to be the greatest commandment.  His answer was unequivocal:  ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, … Continue reading

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Artistry of Faith: Pursuing Vocation

A SINGLE BIBLICAL reference informs us that Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6.3; cf Matthew 13.55), although the Greek word, as with its Aramaic equivalent, when understood within a first-century Palestinian context, communicated a broader range of meaning than the … Continue reading

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