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.
As part of my teaching on Exodus I talk about the Passover and have blogged on the resources I have used here.
One thing I always wanted was a Seder plate to bring into class (and here I include second and third level teaching) so that I can show my students. Now Seder plates are not the easiest thing to pick up in Ireland and any ones I found were very beautiful but prohibitively expensive for my salary (or lack of). The same with online as postage on a large ceramic plate from the US to Ireland always made it difficult-that was until I found ChocolateGelt and their Plastic Seder Plates for a mere €2.25 each. (Glet is slang for money)
They offer very reasonable shipping-here’s the copy from my invoice for shipping to Ireland
United States Postal Service (1 x 0.78lbs) (First-Class Mail International Package): $9.04
Total: $14.54
They arrived super fast too-though it gave my Dad something to puzzle over and he was very disappointed that there was no chocolate in the massive box that arrived for me!
I only wish I’d ordered some Chocolate Seder Plates at the same time :)
A true sign of a Bible nerd is the person who drags another RE teacher out of class to remind her that the BBC Nativity Story starts tonight at 7pm (sqee!) I've played the bones out of the DVD of the Nativity Story so this shall be something new to entertain the troops with.
Andrew Buchan (Garrow's Law, Cranford), Peter Capaldi (In The Loop, The Thick of It) and rising star Tatiana Maslany (Cra$h & Burn, A Grown Up Movie Star) have been cast in a magical re-telling of the classic Nativity story.
Written by Tony Jordan (Life On Mars, Hustle, EastEnders) for BBC One this Christmas and produced by Red Planet Pictures in association with Kudos through BBC Wales.
Over four half-hour episodes the drama will tell the traditional tale known to millions from a very human perspective. With Mary and Joseph's enduring love story at the centre this familiar story is given a contemporary twist, as the drama follows Joseph and Mary from their initial courtship – Joseph desperate to win the heart of Mary – to his emotional turmoil at her unexpected pregnancy.
Tony Jordan said: "The challenge for me was to retell a story that has been told countless times before, a story that everyone knows intimately, yet to do so in a way that will still surprise and move you, to see parts of the story you'd never seen before. I really think that we've achieved that and I'm incredibly proud to have been asked by the BBC to be involved in such a wonderful project."
This gripping and vibrant adaptation will show the Nativity from a fresh viewpoint, highlighting how seemingly ordinary people reacted to the extraordinary and miraculous events that befell them.
Rich in colour and humour the remarkable events that led up to Jesus's birth will unfold across the four nights. From the epic journey of the wise men to the poignant tale of Thomas – a poor shepherd – whose waning faith in God is revived as he kneels beside the crib of the new born king. Jordan's Nativity is a spectacular Christmas treat for the whole family.
Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning added: "We are proud to bring audiences this beautiful story retold for Christmas 2010 by a master story-teller. We hope our version of the Nativity will give audiences all the wonder, magic and inspiration of the original whilst also telling a less familiar tale, that of ordinary people going about their lives with no sense of the enormous importance their story would hold for centuries to come."
An impressive cast joins Andrew Buchan as Joseph; Tatiana Maslany as Mary and Peter Capaldi as Balthasar. Including: Jack Shepherd (Wycliffe) as Melchior; Obi Abili (The Take) as Gaspar; Art Malik (Agatha Christie: Poirot, Holby City) as Nicolaus; Vincent Regan (Clash Of The Titans) as Herod; John Lynch (Mo, Bleak House) as Gabriel; Claudie Blakely (Lark Rise To Candleford) as Anna; Frances Barbour (Agatha Christie: Poirot, The Street) as Elizabeth; Neil Dudgeon (Life Of Riley) as Joachim; Al Weaver (Five Daughters) as Thomas the Shepherd; Ruth Negga (Five Daughters) as Leah and Gawn Grainger (Lords And Luddites) as Levi.
The trailer:
Have a look on Mark Goodacre's blog for the build up and his (bound to be) insightful reviews. (Label= BBC Nativity)
THE BBC has angered Christians with a TV drama in which the Virgin Mary is branded a prostitute and sex cheat.
In The Nativity, written by EastEnders scriptwriter Tony Jordan, 15-year-old Mary is attacked by people who do not believe her claim that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
Her husband Joseph accuses her of “whoring” and even suggests that her pregnancy might have been the result of rape.
The Church of England has described the four-part drama, which goes out before the 9pm watershed from tomorrow, as “a gritty interpretation”.
The Magi (c) BBC-Not a tinfoil hat in sight!
Much more interesting and a better read is the brilliant blog by Matt Page which has a review and lots more info and pics. Well worth a look-his label tag is BBC's "The Nativity"
I'm also hoping Mary isn't in full makeup after the birth scene-my one serious gripe with Kiera Castle- Hughes!
Kiera Castle-Hughes in The Nativity Story
BBC's Nativity Story (c) BBC
Also have a look out for the two Irish actors in the drama-John Lynch will play Gabriel and Ruth Negga will play Leah.
Excentric, a digital agency in Portugal, has put together a visual presentation of the Christmas story using social media, web and mobile technologies.
In a previous post I introduced my lesson plans for my fifth year class on Just War theory and I thought it was about time I gave you a progress report. It took a little more time than I envisaged getting through the Principles of Just War that I listed in the previous post with the class-they just don't have a very high reading ability or attention span for anything that they don't understand so I reverted to the more simple Rules of War that are located on page six of the booklet. I printed out the text and we (eventually) read through them all. I had also collected a mish-mash of newspaper articles from the previous week to show them examples of the various rules in action (either being followed or disobeyed). If you have a data projector in class (lucky, lucky you) it's a good idea to use Google news and you can project them for all to read. If any of you have access to this weekend's Sunday Times Magazine, this has fantastic photographs of situations of conflict.
We also spent some time discussing civil war. Dundalk where I teach is a border town and my students would in general have more of an idea of civil unrest than the average Irish student. We talked about what "peace" meant and how it was a fragile term-how can you have a peace process and still have conflict? What does conflict mean to them? How has the "situation" (oh I've been well-trained in my PC terms and I can say that in a lovely Nordie accent too) in the North affected them? I did get a lot of "bovvered?" answers but at least I got them thinking about the fact that they might be oblivious and apathetic to the longest running civil conflict in the world right on their door steps.
I then looked at different approaches to war-more on Just War here and focused on the example of pacifism. One student was very emphatic that "all war is stupid and never works" and reckoned he was a pacifist. After some careful probing about his attitude towards Hitler, Saddam Hussein and various other clichés designed to get the blood of a teenager who likes Call of Duty boiling. And as it so happens, with an attitude like "kill the feckers" he might not be a pacifist! We worked on material from their textbooks (oh who writes these things, and have they never come across my fifth years!) and reached the dizzying heights of writing answers to questions in a copybook-this is achievement indeed for 5P and I made sure to boast in the staffroom.
As a reward for all the hard work we looked at two films to get a comparison and to look at the way the idea of war has changed through the years. We firstly looked at “Everyman’s War” (1999) which is the true story of Don Smith's heroic experience at the Battle of the Bulge while with the 94th Infantry.
As the seasoned infantry and tank units of the German 11th Panzer "Ghost" division move silently into position on the snow covered hills around Nennig Germany ,a battle weary GI and his unit stand ready to defend the small town, a key position in the Allied advance to win the war. Outgunned and outnumbered, S/ Sgt Don Smith struggles to find hope and courage against overwhelming odds in one of the decisive confrontations in the "Battle of the Bulge" during WWII. His squad of GI's of the 94th Infantry Division lay dug in on the ridge-line outside of town. No one in high command believed that German forces would attack in the sub zero temperatures and near blizzard conditions. As the pre-dawn attack comes, with communications down Sgt. Smith is left with no choice but to make his way through enemy fire, unarmed and wounded, into town and warn of the coming attack. Based on actual accounts.
They "kinda" like this and had a few questions-mostly about why people bothered fighting wars and why would people see being a soldier as a job or career? I gave out a handout with questions to fill in as we went along which I'll post soon once I get my feedback on them.
I was rather chuffed at the recent IBA conference that Biblenerd was mentioned in Pat Rodgers's introductory speech for Larry Hurtado (I am sure Prof Hurtado was not terribly impressed, but we bibliobloggers take publicity wherever we can! On foot of this publicity, I had several people ask for the address of the blog (welcome to all who actually visited!) and a request from Pat and some members to put some material up on the site that they wished to be shared on the Internet-and hopefully be of interest to lots of people.
The first instalment is three PowerPoint presentations made by Sr. Céline Mangan OP on The Bible and Ecology, which I have uploaded to YouTube and posted here for anyone who might like them.
If any other members of the IBA want me to post anything, please let me know-I would only be too delighted to help. Below are the first three of six presentations.
