Resources from Spiritfest 2011

As usual I'm playing catch up with everything I need to share! I've posted my Powerpoint and Handouts from the workshop I gave for Spiritfest 2011 in the Armagh Diocese on July 2nd. The event was a a three day festival of prayer in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012. International keynote speakers such as Fr Lawrence Freeman and Monica Brown were joined by Bishop Richard Clarke, Rev Ruth Patterson, Fr Paschal McDonnell and Professor Eamon Conway. I really njoyed the one day I attended-I got to a presentation on contemplative meditation given by Lawrence Freeman. I deliberately went to something different and was pleased with what we talked about, though it also reiterated for me the importance of knowing the time limits of your workshop or session and keeping to them! An hour on an uncomfortable chair helped me connect with my students no end! He also talked about meditation with children, the theory of which I enjoyed, but am a little skepical about the practice! Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it next year. For more info on Laurence's work have a look here.

Praying the Psalms

Praying the Psalms

The YouTube of Zucchero and Andre Bocelli singing "Miserere" or Psalm 52

Resources for Ministers of the Word

I've been working a bit on resources for Ministers of the Word lately and thought I would share what I had already collected:

For anyone who wishes to offer more resources to their Liturgy groups, there are ample websites containing lots of resources for various groups, including Ministers of the Word. The Archdiocese of Dublin website  is an excellent starting point, particularly for those who are starting a group or who wish to begin formal training of the Ministers of the Word in their parish. The site contains three main pages devoted to the Ministry of the word, including guidelines for those involved, reflections for those participating and a blessing that may be used at the commissioning of a group of ministers.


Looking further afield, the Liturgy Commission in England and Wales has produced a range of materials to help those who have a ministerial role in the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word understand their responsibilities. Worksheets are used to address subjects such as the “role of the reader”, for example, the skills and abilities they need or the assistance they might find helpful. The site includes a brief consideration of why the readings are read at Mass; the language of the scriptures; encouragement for readers to practice how to read the different types of readings which feature in the Lectionary – poetry, narrative, discourse, letters etc; a list of resources for developing practical skills. These skills are treated thoroughly such as why should a reader prepare a reading? How might they do this? What are their other responsibilities? How might they deepen their love for the scriptures? There is also a check list to help give feedback to readers: Do they read audibly, clearly, expressively etc? Do they stand well at the ambo and make good use of the microphone, etc?

In conjunction with this online resource, there is a PDF document available for download from the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales that would be excellent for discussion by any group of readers. This contains factual information which is clearly explained (such as the Vatican’s pronouncements on the participation of Ministers of the Word during the Liturgy) with suggested further reading for those who are interested. There is advice for the Coordinator of the readers and how to select people to serve, as well as how to offer support for those involved in the group.

Thanks to one of my students, Phillip Lough for recommending Lector Notes (which is full of usefulnotes and links). Finally, St Benedict’s Parish in Canada’s website has some beautiful prayers for Ministers of the Word for personal reflection and for use at meetings of this important Liturgy group.

I recently gave a short presentation on the Reading for the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday that you might find helpful.

Readings for Easter

Readings for Easter

Church "wins" Court Case over Banned Bible Ad

As someone who is teaching Leviticus next week, I've just printed out the BBC Northern Ireland report quoted below to give to my students:

A High Court judge has overturned a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that an advertisement by a Belfast church was homophobic.


Sandown Free Presbyterian Church launched judicial review proceedings against the ASA after being found to be in breach of its code of practice.

The judge ruled the ASA's decision interfered with the church's rights to freedom of expression.

Rev David McIlveen described it as a landmark ruling.

The case centred on a full-page advert taken out in the News Letter ahead of a Gay Pride parade in Belfast in August 2008.

It was headlined 'The word of God against sodomy' and invited people to meet for a peaceful gospel witness against the act.

After receiving seven complaints that the notice was homophobic, the ASA ruled it could not appear again in the same form.

Freedom of expression

It also told the church to take more care in future to avoid causing serious offence.

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church's legal team argued its rights to religious belief and freedom of expression under European law had been breached.

They also claimed the church was not offered the chance to offer an explanation before the ban was imposed.

The church argued the ASA misinterpreted a quotation from the Book of Leviticus which branded homosexual acts an abomination.

According to the church the description applied to sodomy itself rather than any individuals.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Treacy stressed the context of the advertisement was important.

"Bible scripture"


The judge noted that the advertisement contained no exhortation to violence and that it also made clear how violent antagonism towards homosexuals was unacceptable and unjustifiable.

He said: "The applicant's religious views and the biblical scripture which underpins those views no doubt cause offence, even serious offence, to those of a certain sexual orientation.

"Likewise, the practice of homosexuality may have a similar effect on those of a particular religious faith.

"But Article 10 (of the European Convention on Human Rights) protects expressive rights which offend, shock or disturb.

"Moreover, Article 10 protects not only the content and substance of information but also the means of dissemination since any restriction on the means necessarily interferes with the right to receive and impart information."

Mr Justice Treacy emphasised that his assessment took into account the very particular context in which the advertisement was placed.

He noted: "The fact that the advertisement did not condone and was not likely to provoke violence, (it) contained no exhortation to other improper or illegal activity, (and) constituted a genuine attempt to stand up for their religious beliefs and to encourage others to similarly bear witness."

He said this had been done by citing well-known portions of scripture which underpinned the church's religious faith and its call to bear witness.

"Whilst such views and scriptural references may be strongly disdained and considered seriously offensive by some, this does not justify the full scope of the restrictions contained in the impugned determination," the judge added.

Rev McIlveen expressed delight with the outcome outside the court.

Flanked by the Rev Ian Paisley, he said: "We want to make it clear we had nothing against the seven people who objected to the advertisement.

"This is a landmark now for future decisions. People can quote the Bible and that's a freedom that we have sought."

I teach Leviticus as part of my Pentateuch course and for ages couldn't find a useful "secondary reading" to go along with the text that was at a level suitable for my students and could give them a "way into" the text. So I composed the following based on the "Dr Laura Letter". I give my students a handout with the biblical texts that are referenced and we start from there! There's rather a lot in the above news article (the impact of the phrase "Flanked by Rev Ian Paisley" cannot be ignored, nor the use of "Bible Scripture" in inverted commas. And you could teach a whole course on "People can quote the Bible and that's a freedom that we have sought". In fact I smell an essay question!)

Dr Laura Letter

Bibledex in the Classroom

I've been singing the praises of Bibledex for a while now but have not got round to letting you know how successfully they can be used in a classroom. I've been teaching a Introduction to the Theology of Paul course for Mater Dei to a class that has students taking the course for credit as well as many who were auditing the course. This mean that there were different educational aims to the course and differing levels of ability which meant that students did not like speaking out or asking questions and I felt just jumping into a topic such as Letter to the Romans to be a bit "raw". To try and combat this and provide a "gentle" entry to the topic I played the Bibledex video for the students, for example this one on Romans



And then put some notes up on my PowerPoint to start discussion. This worked really well as students didn't feel under pressure to take notes and enjoyed the graphics that illustrated the main points in the video. I've all my notes from the course on Scribd so you can have a look:

Lecture 2 Romans

I got great feedback from students-many of whom went back to watch the video after the class on their own computers. They proved a great launchpad for the important topics in a particular epistle and the students were fascinated by the "real world" of Paul. The biggest talking point however, was just how many books does Richard Bell have?